Every Dark Cloud has a Silver Lining
by Biagotmilkandjelly
Summary: Eggman is at it again. In his quest to find another way to defeat his blue nemesis, he creates a strange weapon in his sleep. Having no idea what it does, he decides to test it out on Silver (the slowest) to see just that. What does it do? Will Silver's life be changed forever? What will the others think? Read to see. Rated T for language, adult themes, and romance, possible sex(M)
1. Chapter 1- From Bad To Worse

**Author's note:**

**(Go ahead and skip the first paragraph, it's not that important, but the next stuff sorta is.)**

**This is my first Shadilver/Silvadow ish story, and probably my only one. A little Mephilver, and ScourgexSilver, and maybe some other people liking Silver, but mainly Shadliver. Don't expect all the chapters to be this long. There probably won't be a whole lot more, and they will probably be only about half this long each, just because they come out faster that way. It's not Yaoi (well, not as far as I know, I'm not really clear on the whole yaoi thing), no m-preg ect. As you can probably guess from the cover picture, this is female Silver, so there is gender bending. Thing is, Shadow and Silver are my favourite characters, and I would hate for them to always hate each other. Plus everybody's always so mean to Silver because of his hair and stuff, I figured I'd let y'all know how it feels to be bullied. Oh, and neither Silver nor Shadow is gay. You'll see if you read.**

**WARNING: below is mentioned in the story eventually (well, except for the house description), but if you want to get some background details first, that is why it is here.**

**Well, the basic storyline before the story starts is this: It's a year after Sonic next gen ('06). Silver is 14 and his life sucks, Blaze is dead, or missing, or whatever. Silver is stranded in Sonic's time (Mobius prime), and Shadow pretty much bullies him whenever given the chance. The only person who is even remotely nice to him is Amy, and she's always chasing after Sonic. Eggman has been quiet for a while and everyone is dreading some big attack. Silver lives alone in a small cottage he built with his psychokinesis when he got stranded, it has five main rooms (bedroom, kitchen, living room, extra room, and an attic) that are all fairly small, a bathroom downstairs, and its two stories high. Silver hardly ever goes into town for fear of running into Shadow, and the general people that make fun of him. Mephiles is out there somewhere, low on power, hiding in the shadows trying to build up enough to attack again. He has a special grudge against Silver because Silver was going to help him, but turned to the other side and helped Sonic and the rest to win. Oh, and unless I say otherwise, this is all in Silver's first person point of view. Most of this stuff is explained later, but in case you get confused, I also put it first.**

**By the way, here are the ages of the characters:**

**Silver: 14 Sonic: 16 Shadow: 16 (physically) Tails: 8 Eggman: 52 Amy: 15 Cream: 6 Scourge: 17**

**Blaze: 16 Big: 18 Espio: 17 Charmy: 9 Vector: 20 Vanilla: 19 Rouge: 18 Knuckles: 17**

**And the couples:**

**ShadowxSilver/Mercury SonicxAmy KnucklesxRouge TailsxCream VectorxVanilla Bigx...Froggy?**

**Charmy= forever alone Eggman= forever alone Espio= too ninja for a girlfriend. (Maybe an OC)**

**Plenty of romance, but I don't really plan to have any lemons unless you guys give me good feedback, and ask for it, then I'll add them. This story is pretty flexible, it could go in a few ways. I may even make a beginning part, then have a couple other stories that are like, alternate endings. I read and value any and all reviews, and if I feel that you want a response, then I will private message you.**

**WARNING: MILD anti-Sonic and friends stuff in the beginning.**

**I don't own any of the Sonic the hedgehog characters, that honour goes to SEGA (c)**

**Mercury, Kyle Tygre, Sofia, and some other random characters are my OCs, but I guess Mercury isn't really that original. Full sized picture of Mercury on my deviantart account biagotmilkandjelly also, she is the cover picture.**

**Link to my deviantart account: **

**Since I'm using a picture from deviantart, I have to give myself permission to use it. So: I, biagotmilkandjelly, give myself permission to use my picture as the cover of this fanfiction XD**

**Okay, so thats about all from me. Most of my authors notes wont be this long, they're usually just a couple of lines. Yeah, so no flames! You know what to expect. If you don't like it, then don't read it! Kapische?**

**Sorry for any mistakes in spelling/grammar, I try to catch as many as I can, but nobody's perfect! I appreciate any that you tell me of, and I will do my best to fix them ALL XD**

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Chapter 1- From Bad to Worse ***you might want to read the author's note first (hint, hint)***

"Hey Silver," he whispered in my ear. I knew the voice all too well. It crept into my ear and sent shivers down my spine. Nearly every experience with that voice has ended in my pain, frustration, and humiliation. But I can't let him know how terrified I am, that will just encourage him.

"Oh, hi Shadow. Nice day today, don't you think?" It _was_ a pretty nice day, it was the end of April, the sun was out and there wasn't any sign of rain. It was warm too; warm enough that I had decided to go and get groceries for the week two days early. Nonetheless, as I said this, I made for the main road, trying to get into public so that Shadow wouldn't pull anything.

"Hmph, if you like that sort of thing." He stated, sounding unconvinced. He was keeping pace with me, just following on my left side as I drew ever closer to the welcoming mass of people on the main street. I knew I wouldn't make it though; Shadow had as good as caught me. He was just toying with me at this point.

"Why wouldn't you like it? The sun is a nice change to the bad weather lately." I was just trying to keep the conversation going now, the longer I kept him talking, the closer I could get to the open street.

"There are too many people out when the weather is good, and I don't particularly like crowds." He responded, continuing to keep pace with me. I vaguely wondered why he hadn't stopped me yet, I usually never made it this close to the street, it was only about twenty meters away, I might actually make it!

"Well I'm sorry to hear that, everyone should be able to enjoy days like this." I told him truthfully. Only 15 meters now…

"Mm-hm…" he muttered. He paused mid-stride for a second, seeming to think about something. I took my chance and sped up. He caught up in no time, though he still allowed me to head towards the main road. Less than ten meters…

We both remained silent, I couldn't think of anything to say. Five more meters…

He kept in stride with me, but didn't move to cut me off. Just a few more steps…

I gave a small sigh of relief when I made it onto the avenue filled with Mobians and humans. The road was lined with bright shops and streetlights. I glanced to my left to see that Shadow was still following me, only half a step behind. That was odd; he usually stuck to the side streets and alleys. Then again, it was odd that I even made it into the main street.

I made my way through the crowd to the supermarket. Shadow continued to follow at my side. It was really strange how he just followed without saying a word or making a move to attack me. I half-expected him to say 'later pothead' or 'see ya around Cocahog' and then disappear into an alley, but no such luck.

I finally got to the store and started collecting the groceries on my list. Shadow continued to follow. By the time I made it to the cash register, I was really weirded out. We'd only exchanged a few words while I was doing my shopping, and it had been mostly Shadow ridiculing my choice in purchases. Otherwise, he had silently followed me the whole time without really bothering me. There wasn't very much on my list, and it only took me about twenty minutes to collect it all and go to the checkout counter.

There was a nice-looking cat at the counter, she had grey fur and white paws. I knew her from other times I'd been to the store, her name was Sofia. She was one of the few people who didn't make fun of me; in fact, she'd even complimented my quills from time to time.

I put all my groceries down and greeted her with a smile. "Hey Sofia, how're you doing?"

She grinned back. "Hey Silver, I'm having a great day, how about you?" She started checking in my groceries and bagging them.

"Oh, you know how it is, same as usual. The sun is a nice change though, what do you think of it?" I answered. Shadow shifted behind me and pulled something out of his leather jacket's pocket (he had taken to wearing one since the incident with black doom). I ignored it.

"The sun makes it so beautiful outside, I can't wait for my shift to end so I can really enjoy it!" she told me, putting the last of the groceries in a sack. I pulled out my wallet to pay. But Shadow stepped in front of me.

"Here. I'll pay for it." Shadow handed her his credit card.

I kind of just stood there with my mouth half-open. Sofia seemed pretty surprised as well, but she took the credit card and swiped it. Shadow finished paying and took his credit card back. I was standing there with a look that was probably priceless on my face staring at the dark hedgehog in disbelief. He saw my expression and smirked.

"Close your mouth and take your groceries, Silver." He practically laughed in my face. I had no idea of how to respond so I did as told. I waved to Sofia as I left the store with Shadow still following, and his smirk still present.

I began to head back home, still wondering what the heck Shadow was up to. Once I made it out of the main street, I decided to ask him.

"Um, if you don't mind my asking, why did you pay for my things?" I turned around to face the ebony hedgehog. He seemed prepared for this, and stopped without needing to back up. He smirked at my question.

"You chose a good day to come into town, pothead. Today would be Maria's birthday, and I try to do something decent every year on it." His smirk faded a little as he turned to leave, and for a second, I almost pitied him. I knew what it was like to lose a friend.

"Okay, thank you. Good-bye Shadow, have a nice day." I said my farewell and turned to leave, thinking about my only _real_ friend.

Blaze sacrificed herself to contain Iblis in order to spare me and our world. Every day since that moment I keep telling myself _'it should have been me, it should have been me.' _But the really frustrating thing is, Blaze should (hypothetically,) still be alive. Sonic got rid of the flames of disaster before they were released, so my world _should_ be back to normal, and Blaze _should_ have never had to sacrifice herself. But I might never know, because I was stranded here, in this time. 200 years in my past and unable to get back home. And even if I did go back, nothing would be the same. Blaze and I might not have ever met, or even existed! It's not like I haven't tried to get back, both Shadow and Sonic have attempted to help send me back after we potentially saved the world from Iblis, but something keeps going wrong. We can open a portal, but it doesn't go anywhere. Tails ran some tests on it, and he says the problem is that the destination that we're imagining doesn't exist anymore. So that pretty much tells me that my world has changed dramatically, and now I have no idea of how to get to it.

I tried to get used to life in this time, but I just don't fit in. My quills, for one, make me a target for gangsters and jerks. My powers freak a lot of people out, but I've always used them for everything before, so it's hard to limit how much I use psychokinesis around other people, and when I do, it makes them think that I'm a total freak. And then there's the fact that my entire life, since the day I could walk and talk, I've been fighting for my life, and now (well, besides Shadow and sometimes Eggman) I don't ever have to fight anything. I always thought that once we beat Iblis and saved the world, Blaze and I would be happy and everything would be peaceful. But life was not turning out that way. My best friend, and the only person who every truly understood where I was coming from is missing, dead, or has never met me and has no idea who I am. I'm stranded in a time where I don't fit in, and even on nice days I am wary to leave my house. I generally kept to myself, passing the time by painting or learning how to cook fancy food because there was nothing else to do.

When Eggman attacks, I am expected to help, but never once thanked or appreciated. Shadow beats me up at every opportunity, Chaos knows why. Sonic is still sore about my attempt to kill him the first time we met, even though I have apologised for my mistake a thousand times over. Amy is nice to me, but she only ever talks about Sonic, and she's usually following or hanging out with him or her team. Tails and I don't get along very well, mostly because we are both very smart, and are constantly trying to outdo each other in intelligence. When he wins, he childishly rubs it in my face, and when I win, he says that I was using psychokinesis to cheat. He doesn't care that the reason I'm so smart is because I'm trying to learn as much as I can about this time so that I can fit in, so I've been reading as much history and science and mathematics books as I can. It also helps that I have an eidetic memory. But even all that knowledge does not help me blend. I don't know most of the rest of our 'friends' very well, and I don't really want to meet anybody else that will potentially bully me.

Sometimes, I almost wish that I would just cease to exist. I don't think anyone would really miss me. Amy has other people to rant about Sonic to, and Tails would be happy to be the undisputed smartest again. Shadow would find a new punching bag, he has plenty. Sonic probably wouldn't even notice, he'd be too busy running around taking all the credit as a hero. Sometimes, I wonder why I haven't yet. Sonic getting rid of the flames of disaster obviously changed the timeline drastically, and my memories haven't changed at all. I, as I am in existence at this moment, shouldn't exist. Either I shouldn't have these memories, or I should have gone to my new world, or I should just... Not exist. I think it has something to do with the chaos emeralds. Shadow, Sonic, and I were using them when Sonic went back in time with princess Elise. I think the Chaos energy preserved me and my memories from changing. Shadow and Sonic also remember all of it, which backs up my theory. But Amy, Tails, and the rest have no idea what happened. As far as they are concerned, I'm just some hedgehog with strange choices in hairstyles who shows up and helps them out every now and then. Shadow, Sonic and I tried to explain what happened to our friends, but it gets really confusing with all the time travel. They just conclude that we made it all up, and Sonic is just bragging about saving the world. _Again._

So what am I? Just a creation of Chaos energy? Does this make me immune to time-paradoxes? Is everyone right? am I just a freak? I don't know why I keep torturing myself with these questions, but they haunt me when I have too much time to think. I almost wish something would happen to distract me...

I stopped dead. I had just stepped into the shadow of something huge. I slowly lifted my eyes from the ground to look at the cause. The shadow ended at an enormous pair of metal feet. Each one was larger than me. Connected to those feet were thick metal cylinder-shaped legs that held up the probably huge weight of the giant, metal, egg-shaped, red body of the machine. There were arms sprouting from either side, with two-pronged claws meant for grabbing at the end of each. The top of the body was made of glass. though the sun was causing a glare on it, I guessed who was inside the cockpit. My suspicions were confirmed only seconds after that prediction.

"OH-HO-HO-HO-HO-HO!" The familiar laughter of one Doctor Eggman boomed down on my ears. As if it wasn't loud enough, his huge mecha amplified the sound to deafening proportions. It was loud enough that anyone within a kilometre should be able to hear it. Too bad the route to my house was so out of the way that there wasn't anybody around to hear it for at least _three _kilometres. I had to clasp my hands over my poor ears to make sure I didn't go deaf. Needless to say, I dropped all my bags.

_Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. _I lectured myself, _There you go again, feeling sorry for yourself, and look what happens. You run into Eggman, and he's probably not celebrating his dead best friend's birthday with an act of kindness. If Blaze were here, she'd tell you it was your own fault for not paying attention. Dammit, quit thinking about Blaze! Focus Silver, you better pay attention if you want to get out of this!_

The doctor finished laughing. "HO-HO. I have you in my grasp now, hedgehog!" I looked around for an escape route, but there were badniks in every direction. It looked like I'd have to fight my way out of this one.

When I looked back to the mecha, I had to immediately dive away due to the huge claw speeding directly for me. I hit the ground hard and saw some motion from the corner of my eye, so I did a barrel roll away and came back to a standing position. The other claw was embedded in the ground right where I had been only a second before. I hadn't done this in a while, and I was breathing hard. I was too surprised and unfocused to use psychokinesis yet, so it was looking pretty bad. As the mecha drew back to get ready to attack again I tried to focus my powers. The best way to do that is to calm down, and talking helps.

"What do you want Eggman?!" I yelled, putting all my anger and frustration into that sentence. It came out sounding way more confident than I expected. Well, I _am_ pretty pissed off.

"Oh, nothing much, hedgehog. I just need to test one of my inventions on you!" he grinned maniacally.

His mecha finished readying itself, and it swiftly moved in my direction again. I ran in the opposite direction. There was a badnik ready to fight me, but it looked much easier to beat than the huge eggman robot. I ran head first at the short robot and called on my powers to fling it as far away as possible. I still wasn't mentally prepared enough to throw it, but I managed to push it back several meters so that it was no longer a threat. I grit my teeth and tried to run faster, the mecha behind me creating tremors with its steps. There was no doubt that this mecha was built for speed from the pace of the heavy footsteps advancing behind me.

Two more badniks came at me from either side. I used my powers to stop them long enough for me to dive between them, barrel roll, and keep running. I heard the two robots crash into each other behind me, then a loud crunch as both of them were crushed by the advancing mecha. I had almost made it to the edge of the forest, I knew if I could make it in there, I could escape. The mecha would be forced to slow down because of the trees, and I could disappear in the foliage. But that wasn't gonna happen. This mecha had clearly been designed to fight Sonic or Shadow, it was faster than most of the ones I'd had to fight before. Unlike Sonic, Shadow, Blaze, and the others; I couldn't move very fast. I was pushing myself past my limit to get away, and I still was only barely ahead of the huge machine, and it was gaining on me. My boots didn't help at all either, they were (and always have been) a size too big, and were no good when it came to running for your life. They were built for protection and endurance, they could withstand fire, water, ice, mud, you name it. I could walk for weeks with hardly any rest without my feet hurting too much. I'd had the same pair since I was ten, yeah, they'd lasted that long, and still looked good. Yet they were absolutely worthless for running fast.

I was halfway to the woods when it happened. The mecha was directly behind me, and I knew there was no way I could outrun it. So I prepared to fight. I mentally got ready to throw a psychic knife at it. What I was planning was pretty risky, and I had to be ready and alert or it wouldn't work. I counted to three before dropping on my back and sliding under the machine. I focussed my powers into a concentrated spike in the palm of my hand and moved my arm in a swiping motion across my chest. The attack hit its target, and flew straight into the joint between the leg and the body of the machine. It was stronger than I had expected, and the machine reacted violently to the unexpected blast. Immediately, there was a small explosion and I threw my hands in front of my face to protect myself from the sudden wave of fire and heat. I knew what came next, and I threw myself forward in a desperate dive before the full weight of the mecha's body could crash down on top of me. But I wasn't fast enough, and I certainly wasn't lucky.

"Aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhgggg!" I screamed as at least twenty tons of metal fell directly onto my outstretched right leg. There was a loud pop as Eggman shot himself out of the cockpit in his weird hover pod thing. The mecha shifted from the weight displacement, further crushing my leg under the hunk of metal. I screamed again while my vision blurred, but I somehow managed to remain conscious.

"You stupid little rodent! You worthless white rat! You ruined my beautiful machine! How dare you! Have you any idea how long this took me to design and build? Are you as thick as you look? Now how am I supposed to use this against Sonic?..." The doctor continued ranting, and I weakly attempted to pull my leg out from under his so called, 'beautiful machine' before he realised that I was stuck. I only managed to discover that the bones in my foot were crushed, and moving it was not an option. The pain caused by this revelation caused me to cry out yet again.

The doctor turned around mid-rant. "You little-" he froze in surprise when he saw my predicament, "you're- you're trapped! OH-HO-HO-HO-HO! I've caught you! HA! So it wasn't all for naught! I beat you! I, doctor Ivo Robotnik, have won! I knew I could catch you! You _are_ the slowest after all! Now I can see what my invention does!" He grinned evilly, and pulled out a large, dangerous looking gun out of his hover pod.

It was about a meter and a half in length, and was fairly simple in design as far as appearances went. It had a sleek shape, being small and pointed at the shooting end, whilst being plump and round at the back, vaguely resembling a teardrop. I couldn't see much more than that, because my vision was not at its greatest, and turning to look in Eggman's direction was incredibly painful.

Even through the pain of having my leg crushed under several tonnes of steel, I picked up on what the doctor said before pulling out his weapon. "S-see what it does?! Wh-what's that s-supposed t-to mean?!" I hate it when I stutter, but I can't help it when I get scared or hurt.

The doctor laughed as he flipped a switch, causing the gun to whirr as it powered up. "I have no idea! I built this in my sleep, being the genius that I am! It has no effect on my robots, but it must do _something_ ingenious! _That_ is where you come in, before I use this on Sonic, I would like to know what it does. _You_ are the slowest of all Sonic's friends, I was sure that if I could catch you off guard, there would be no way you could get away! And I was right! It cost me a mecha, but I have you in my crosshairs!" The doctor took aim at me, squinting one eye in order to get a better perspective. I closed my eyes and tried to make myself as small as possible, preparing for the worst.

I heard the blast, it was a small sound, but it echoed in the second of silence before it hit. The energy beam hit me directly in the side, and there was a burst of light as it made contact that made my closed eyelids glow. It didn't hurt though, there was this big tingling sensation all over me, from the tips of my quills to the toes on my feet. It kind of tickled, and the pain in my leg disappeared for a second. I even laughed a little.

Then the comfortable tingle faded, and was replaced with a burning sensation all over my body. My scalp felt like it was scalded, and my chest seared. My heart sped up until I thought it might burst. My throat felt like I had swallowed hot coals. My feet felt like they were up in flames, but that wasn't even close to how much pain my hips and the space in between was dealing with. When I couldn't hold it in any longer, I screamed. It was long, pained, and set my own fur on end. I flailed out of the curled up position I had been in. I flung my arms out to either side, and thrust my head back against the ground. I could see Eggman above me, covering his ears from the sound of my screams of pain, and he started to fly his pod away. The burning sensation got more and more intense, and I became convinced that I had been set on fire. The next minute became a routine of scream, gasp for breath, scream again, gasp for breath, and repeat. I was wishing that I would just die or pass out or something, when all of a sudden, the pain sky rocketed. I arched my back, threw my head against the ground, and screamed louder than ever before. When I had no more breath, I collapsed, and blacked out.

I don't think I was out for long, because the sun was in about the same place as it had been before when I woke up. The burning sensation was gone, but my leg was still crushed under the mecha. Thankfully, it had gone numb, and I couldn't feel it any longer. I looked around, Eggman was no where to be seen.

I was lying curled up on my side. There was something soft tickling my back, so I stretched out and moved my arm behind my back to push it away and see what it was. When I turned my head to see what the soft thing was, it moved away before I could get a glimpse of it. But then it was on my other side. And when I turned my head that way, I ran into the same problem. I wasn't in the mood to chase anything, so I just grabbed it and pulled it around so I could see it. As soon as I pulled it forward though, there was a tugging on the back of my own head. Someone was pulling on my... Hair? I quickly looked at the thing in my hand. It was long, soft, white hair. I pulled on it, and at the same time, there was a tugging on my head. Did Eggman give me a new hair style? My hands immediately flew up to feel my signature five quills, but they weren't there. In their place were long, white quills that lay down flat on my scalp, going all the way down past my back to nearly reach my ankles. My eyes widened and I let my hands fall down from my hair to my face. My face felt different. The cheekbones in my muzzle were higher, and on the ends of my eyelids, there were long eyelashes.

"What the..." My voice was different. Higher, and more... musical? I guess that's the word.

There was a whooshing sound, and I whipped my head around to see the doctor flying in on his hover pod. He had another mecha with him. My heart sank when I saw it. All thoughts of my hair disappeared when I saw him fly in. He saw me sitting up, and made a relieved motion and looked back down to his keyboard.

"Thank goodness you're awake, I was worried I might have killed you! As much as I hate you hedgehogs, I wouldn't want to be a murderer!" He looked back to me and his jaw dropped. His eyes widened, and his black sunglasses actually fell off of his nose, displaying his black eyes with red pupils. "Sil-silver? Is that _you_?"

He was staring at me in disbelief, but he wasn't looking me in the face... He was staring lower, more like at my abdomen. Worrying about my chest hair, I looked down at my chest and nearly passed out again. My chest hair was gone, and in its place was... Something that I should not have. Something no male should have. Large, round; I think the technical term is breasts.

"Ahhhhh! What the hell?!" I was completely in shock. There was nothing covering them, because I never wore anything besides my boots and gloves anyways. Then I looked back up to Eggman and realised something. _Eggman is staring at my breasts!_

"You pervert!" I shouted, leaning down and doing my best to cover my chest. Eggman shook out of his daze.

"It uhh, it appears that... That my machine has changed you... from a male... to a female..." He took off his large red jacket and tossed it on top of me. "Use that to cover yourself, hedgehog."

"Well, change me back!" I demanded, seriously pissed off, and freaking out. I gladly wrapped the huge, warm jacket around myself and sat up again.

Eggman pulled out his weapon like he was about to comply, but then his expression hardened, and he grinned evilly, his eyes glinting in the sunlight. He put the weapon back down and picked up his glasses to perch them back on his nose.

"No, I don't think I will! This invention is pure genius! Good luck getting yourself free, hedgehog. I'm taking this weapon straight to Sonic, he won't know what hit him! Another time, Silver!" And with that, he flew away, laughing maniacally with his mecha following.

"No! Eggman, get back here! You can't do this to me! I'm- I'm not done with you yet! EGGMAAAAAAAAAAN!" I screamed as loudly as I could, but it was no use, he was already too far away. I was stuck there, staring at the place where he had disappeared, wishing he would come back and say: 'just kidding' and shoot me again, but no such luck.

I was too scared and exhausted to scream, and in too much shock to cry, so all I could do was sit and stare. I knew the only way I was going to get out of this was to lift the mecha with psychokinesis, so I began trying to calm myself down. I sang songs that Blaze and I had sung together back before Mephiles tricked us into fighting Sonic in this time. I hummed the tunes to nursery rhymes, lullabies, campfire songs, even 'She comes around the mountain'. Eventually, I relaxed, I was still majorly freaked out and in shock, but I'd managed to push it all down and suppress it. I know that isn't healthy, but what was I supposed to do? I took a deep breath, and turned my attention to the huge bulk of scrap metal crushing my leg. It looked and felt incredibly heavy, but I was confident I could lift it. I closed my eyes, and focused. I imagined the huge machine being lifted and moved away. There was a groan of metal, and then a crash a few meters away as the mecha was tossed. The pressure was taken off of my leg, and I peeked my eyes open to see what I'd accomplished. The mecha had been tossed farther than I had expected, and it had been much easier than I thought it would be too. I was pretty impressed with myself.

Now that I was no longer trapped, I took a look at my right boot. It was completely smashed, and damaged beyond repair, the shiny golden ring at the top was demolished, dented and crumpled around my leg like a chewed up tin can. The leather was ripped in places, and there was (oh dear lord) dried blood showing through and plastered onto it. The beautiful red gem at the top was smashed into small pieces, and the place where my foot should be was flattened and twisted. I knew I couldn't walk in my boot when it was ruined like this, so I gently started to slide it off. But the ring was caught on my leg, part of it was actually piercing the skin. I sighed, and psychokinetically pried the ring apart, and off of my leg. The rest of the boot came off fairly easily, and soon my foot was exposed.

It actually didn't look all that bad, except for the blood. It was stuck in the 'ballerina' position. Toes pointed down, heel curled back, foot flat out. The heel was smashed flat into the foot, keeping the foot stuck in that position. I tried wiggling my toes, but there was no response. There were cuts all over it, but most of them had started to seal up and nearly all the blood was dry. There was no way I could walk on it, so I looked around me for something that I could use to support myself. I was close to the trees, and there were plenty of large sticks and branches lying around. I saw a smooth, long, mostly straight one and floated it over.

I propped the stick upright in the ground and used it to lift myself up on my good foot. I kept my crushed foot above the ground, I didn't want to risk making it any worse. I looked sadly at my ruined boot on the ground. They had been a gift from Blaze for my tenth birthday. Actually, it wasn't really my birthday, it was more like the anniversary of the day she had found me. I was two and she was four when we found each other, but I didn't know my birthday, so she just decided to celebrate the day that she found me. I used to fight barefoot, because I had long outgrown the shoes that I had been found with. She had found an old store that wasn't completely destroyed, and managed to find some shoes. They weren't that great the way she had found them, but she had found some tools to clean them up with and give them a design. It was the greatest present I had ever gotten. I remember being so happy that I could explode, even though they were way too big for me. They slowed me down when I fought for a while, because I kept tripping over them, but I eventually got used to it, and grew into them a bit more. I never wanted to take them off, they were, and still are, my most valued possessions. Now one of them was ruined. Blaze would be so disappointed in me, she'd tell me that I should have been more careful, that I should try harder to be quicker. She'd also make me fix them, and tell me that she wasn't going to help me even though we both know that she would help me anyways because I'd screw it up. God, I miss Blaze.

I tried taking a step towards the boot so I could pick it up, but nearly fell on my face. I clung desperately to the stick as I tried to get my other foot back into my boot properly. It had pretty much left the boot behind, coming out up to the ring before getting caught. My foot was too small for my boot again. I sighed again and unclasped the ring on my boot. I pulled out my foot, seeing that it was noticeably small compared to the shoe next to it. Great. I have tiny girly feet. Well, it looks like I'm going to have to go barefoot to the hospital. I picked up my left boot and hobbled over to my right one to pick it up as well.

I wasn't that far from my house, so I started in that direction, hoping to drop off my shoes and maybe see if I had a shirt and pants somewhere that I could switch the jacket for. It took me a while, but I eventually made it home. I pushed the door open, it was never locked, nobody knew where I lived, or cared enough to find out. And there was nothing really worthwhile to steal, unless you count my paintings, but I don't. Then again, I do have artist's prejudice. Anything I make naturally looks bad to me. _Somebody_ must like them though, because I keep getting a ton of rings from this anonymous buyer who apparently likes my oil paintings a lot. That's really the only reason that I have enough money to pay for groceries and television and whatnot. I just put one that I was proud of on the Internet anonymously one day, and within a couple of days, I got a bid for it starting at five thousand rings. Apparently this guy had a bunch of rivals, and there was a heated bidding war on it before he finally won it for fifty thousand rings. He said he was pretty happy, and that fifty thousand was a total steal. After that, he and his rivals always bid on my paintings. He usually won, but every now and then one of the others would out bid him on the smaller paintings. But they didn't win cheap, the least I'd gotten for a painting was twenty-five thousand. I'd say that I manage to make a pretty good living off of my paintings.

I wonder if I'll ever see that first painting again. It was an impressionistic rendition of Sonic, Shadow, and I battling Solaris in our super forms. The flames were layered so that they looked almost like they were moving in spirals. There was the face of the monster composed mostly of shadows, it wasnt very obvious, but when you noticed it, it stood out a lot and appeared very menacing. Sonic, Shadow, and I were portrayed as dots of light flickering amongst a sea of shadows in the centre of the beast. I think it depicted the battle pretty well. I hardly ever signed my art, and if I did, it was always just a cursive 'H' for hedgehog done in silver paint or ink. But I have incredibly messy and loopy handwriting, so half the time, it looked more like an 'M'.

I dropped my boots by the door and shuffled up to my room to see if I had any clothes at all to wear besides Eggman's jacket. I dropped my stick on my bed and started rifling through my closet. I sure had a lot of junk in it, like old blankets, video tapes, CDs, DVDs, a soccer ball, old paint tubes, I even found my hair brush that I had been looking for everywhere. But the only pieces of clothing that I could find was an old pair of jeans that I have no idea where I got, and my old gloves that I had outgrown. I looked down at the gloves I was wearing and saw that they were all baggy on my hands, and much too big. Also they had a little blood on them from my foot. I grudgingly pulled them off and replaced them with my old gloves, which (guess what?!) fitted perfectly. Lovely. Dainty little hands to go with the feet. I searched my room some more, but failed to produce a shirt.

I cursed myself for thinking I'd never need a shirt, and banged my fist on the desk. Then I sighed and picked up the pair of jeans I had found. They were kind of big for me now, but that just made it easier to pull over my injured leg. When I had gotten the jeans on, I started working on making the jacket fit better. When I was double wrapping the triple extra large jacket around myself, I got a sudden idea. I grabbed my stick and nearly flew down the hall to my bathroom.

I rummaged around in my bathroom closet for a couple of seconds before yanking a light blue towel off of the top shelf. I dropped the jacket off and closed my eyes so I didn't have to see myself in the mirror. I blindly wrapped the towel around my torso as tightly as I could. It actually worked pretty well, and stayed on once I tucked in the corner behind my back. I opened my eyes to see my handiwork. I was shocked by the person staring back at me from the mirror. She had long white quills that cascaded down her back so naturally that the only word to describe it was beautiful. There were two defined locks of hair that came down the front on either side of her face, falling in front of her shoulders and reaching her hips. She had large, amber eyes that looked back at me with the same confusion that I felt. Her eyelashes were long and full, matching her eyes very well. The towel wrapped around her body showed off her form very well, displaying her small waist and full, but not too large breasts. The jeans were too big, but that made them look a bit like cargo pants, which actually looked very good with the towel. I had a feeling that nearly anything worn by this body would look nice.

I raised a hand to my cheek, and the girl in the mirror did the same. I smiled to myself and couldn't help but think that as a girl, I was very easy on the eyes.

I shook myself. "No Silver. You are going to find Eggman and make him change you back." Great. Now I'm talking to myself. I picked the jacket back up. The sun was going back down and it was about to get cold, so I might as well bring the jacket, because a towel was not going to be enough. I put my arms in the sleeves and then pushed them up as much as I could. I left the jacket unclasped, there was no need to close it now that I had a top.

I grabbed my stick and went back downstairs. I took my wallet from the side table and walked through the front door. The night air was frigid, and I pulled the jacket tighter around my shoulders before beginning my trek to the hospital.

About thirty minutes later, I made it to the main road into the city. I began following it when I saw a familiar pink car heading away from the city. I sped up and looked for a place to hide, Amy couldn't see me like this! She'd tell Sonic, and he'd tell Shadow, and then the three of them would tell everybody else! They would never let me live this down! Sadly there was no place to hide, and Amy, being the kind of person that she is, saw my messed up leg and immediately pulled over.

"Oh my gosh! Are you okay? How did your leg get like that? Do you need a ride? Nevermind, just get in my car! I'll take you to the hospital!" She hopped out of the driver's seat to open the passenger side door for me.

I looked in the direction of the city. It was still quite a long way away, and I was starting to get feeling back in my foot. I glanced at Amy, waiting expectantly for me to get in.

I sighed. "Thank you, but I can get there on my own." I started to walk towards the city again.

"No way! I mean, I can respect that you may not want to take a ride from a stranger, or that you want to prove something, but there's no way that I'm going to just let you walk all the way to the hospital by yourself with a leg like that! It will take you _forever_!" She started herding me into the car.

_Wait, a stranger? She doesn't recognise me? I guess maybe she wouldn't, I don't really look all that much like myself. And I don't have my boots... Maybe I don't have to tell her who I am! She won't notice that I'm gone once I fix this, I'll just be one more person she helped out... But what will I tell her my name is? Not Silver... What does Silver sound like? Silvia? No, that's stupid, she'd see through it. Well, silver... Like quicksilver... What's another word for that? Mercury, right? That sounds okay, if she asks my name, that's what I'll tell her._

As I was mentally preparing myself, Amy pushed me into her car, not giving me any other choice. She handed me the buckle and told me to put it on before closing the door and running around to the other side of the car. I rolled my eyes and buckled up as the overexcited pink hedgehog got her car running and turned it around on the nearly empty road. Once she got her car straightened out on the road, she glanced back over to me.

"That looks really bad, how did it happen?" She looked back to the road as she asked.

"Umm, something heavy fell on it, I don't have the best luck." I responded, smiling sheepishly.

"Gosh, I guess not. What fell on it?" She asked, catching me off guard.

I couldn't think of anything to make up, so I told her the truth, sort of. "Well, I ran into this really fat guy with a giant robot thing. I managed to break it, but it fell on my leg." I tried to make it sound like I had no idea who the guy was.

Amy slammed on the breaks, causing both of us to jerk forward. "Wait, fat guy with a robot? Did he have a big moustache and wear a red coat? Was he bald?" She stared at me intently.

I blinked. "Ummm, yeah, why?"

"Oh my gosh! No way! You ran into Eggman! How long ago was this? You beat the robot? How big was it?"

"Whoa, slow down! Uhhh, it was a few hours ago, around two. Yes, I beat the robot, and it was enormous. If I had to guess, at least thirty meters tall, easy." I don't know why I was telling her all this, but Amy has a way of making you want to talk about things.

"Wow! That's crazy! And you didn't know who he was? Where do you live? Oh my gosh, how long were you walking before I found you?" She started the car again.

I smiled at her excitement. "I had no idea, how do you know him? I live pretty far out of the way, there isn't a road to my house. I've been walking for about half an hour or so. Thank you by the way, its really nice of you to offer to help me. What's your name?" I figured maybe I should ask her what her name is just so I don't confuse her by accidentally calling her Amy when she hasn't told me yet.

"Oh, I've know Eggman for a _long_ time, my boyfriend is a hero, and Eggman is a bad guy that we fight a lot. He's bad news, you should try to stay away from him at all costs." She glanced back at my foot. "But I guess you already know that! I can't believe you live that far away! Do you have any neighbours? We should totally hang out some time! You're very welcome, it's not a problem, _especially_ if you've been walking for half an hour! I am way more than happy to help! My name is Amy Rose, what's yours?" It's crazy how she keeps so many conversations going at once.

I tried to keep up. "Your boyfriend is a hero? Who is he? You don't have to tell me twice about Eggman, I've learned my lesson. No, I don't have any neighbours, but living on my own is nice, I like the quiet. Half an hour is _nothing_, it takes me an hour and a half to walk to town whenever I need groceries or anything. And my name is Mercury, nice to meet you."

"His name is Sonic, he's great! In fact, we just got back from a fight with Eggman, he had some weird gun with him, but of course, he couldn't hit Sonic, he's too fast! Sonic smashed it, and beat Eggman as usual." She grinned at me. I felt like ice had just been dumped down my back. "Eggman ran off again though, so we didn't get him behind bars. It's nice to meet you too."

"Yeah... Was that gun shaped sort of like a teardrop?" I asked, hoping against hope that it wasn't.

"Yeah, how did you know?" She asked looking really surprised.

"Oh, umm, its just because he had a gun when he attacked me too. I was wondering if it was the same one." I answered, kind of lamely. "And your boyfriend destroyed it?"

"Yeah, Egghead was pretty upset about it too, he nearly exploded! It was pretty funny." She pretty much sealed my predicament right there. Now I have no chance of getting back to how I'm supposed to be. Eggman even told me that he had no idea of what it did or how he made it, because he did it all in his sleep. It's really unlikely that he would be able to remake it, and even more unlikely that he would even help me.

I was staring at the road and thinking about all this when I realised that Amy was trying to talk to me. "I'm sorry, what were you saying?"

"I was asking you if you wanted to hang out some time, you seem like a really nice person. Why did you just space out there? Is something wrong?"

"Uhh, no, its just my leg, sorry. Hanging out sounds fun, when were you thinking?" I changed the subject before she got too interested.

"I understand, you don't have to apologise, silly! How about tomorrow? You'll probably stay at the hospital, right? I'll bring a few friends and we'll rescue you from the doctors, then we can go to the mall!" She grinned, already planning her whole day.

"Ugggghhh, I hate hospitals, I wish I didn't have to stay the night, but they're definitely going to make me." I complained, tossing my head dramatically backwards to convince her that I was fine.

"Hahaha, you remind me a lot of Sonic, he _really_ hates hospitals too! He's also the kind of person who would try to walk all the way to the hospital with a messed up leg. I think you two would get along. Hey! I just had the best idea! I should invite _all_ my friends tomorrow! That way they can all meet you! Sonic, Knuckles, Tails, Cream, Charmy, Rouge, Vector, Vanilla, Espio, maybe Big if he's not chasing froggy _again_. And Silver too! And maybe even Shadow if he wants to! It's gonna be so much fun!"

_This is a problem. She can't invite me! And what would I do if Shadow showed up! I need to turn my cell phone off, so it won't go off in case she tries to call me._

"Yeah, sounds great... Are you sure all those people can come with such short notice?" I was hoping she might decide against it.

"Well, some of them might be busy, like Vector, Vanilla, and probably Big. Shadow doesn't usually like talking to people, so he might not come, and Silver might be busy, but he usually comes. Most of us don't work on the weekends though, and Sonic and Knuckles don't work at all, so everybody else should come, and if Rouge likes you, then maybe she'll get Shadow to come too!"

"That's pretty cool, how did you meet all your friends?" I asked, reaching into the pocket of my jeans to switch my phone off.

"Well, we all pretty much met because of one bad guy or another, and the chaos emeralds! Most of us met because of Eggman, but for Silver, Knuckles, and Rouge, we mostly met because of the emeralds. I'm not sure exactly how we ran into Silver, he says that nobody but Sonic, Shadow and him remember what happened because we weren't using chaos energy when time was reset or something? Anyways, Silver is pretty interesting, but he likes to keep to himself, and he's got kinda weird hair. Knuckles is the guardian of the master emerald and chaos emeralds, so we found him when we needed them for the first time. He and Sonic have been friends ever since, but Knuckles is really aggressive sometimes. Rouge is actually a thief, she was trying to steal the emeralds when we met, but she's good at heart, and now she helps us out a lot. She and I are pretty close. Enough about them though, you'll meet them all tomorrow! Tell me about you! How old are you? Where have you been all this time? How have I not met you? What do you like to do? What's your favourite colour? Are you wearing a towel? Where did you get that jacket? It looks _way_ too big for you! What's your phone number? Do you have any powers?"

"Wait! Wait, I can't keep up with all the questions! How about I tell you five things now, and then you can learn the rest tomorrow." We were almost to the hospital, so we wouldn't have that much time left to talk anyways.

"Okay, deal. So first, what are you wearing?"

"Well, I'm wearing jeans, a towel for a shirt, and that big Eggman guy's jacket."

"Wait, why a towel? And how come you have Eggman's coat?!"

"That's two things..." I smiled slyly.

"Okay, fine, just tell me!"

I thought up a lie quickly. "Well, I have Eggman's jacket because his machine ripped my shirt when I was fighting it, and I guess he figured it was the least he could do since he broke my leg. And the towel is a fashion statement. Don't judge."

Amy smiled. "Nice, but I'll make sure to bring you a change of clothes tomorrow, you can't go out in public wearing a towel! Plus your jeans are probably all messed up because of your foot, and that coat is _way_ too big. But somehow, you mange to make it all look good."

"Thanks." I grinned at the compliment, no one ever said that I looked nice.

"All right, so do you have any powers?"

"Uhh, yeah. I can lift stuff with my mind, it comes in handy when you're short like me, but I don't really use it much. It came in handy when I fought that Eggman guy though."

"Wow! That's the same as Silver! I think its an awesome power."

"Thanks, okay, last thing."

"Wait, I thought I had two more!"

"Nope, you asked me what I was wearing, then you asked me about the jacket, and about the towel, and then about my powers."

"I thought the jacket and towel were one thing!"

"I said it was two."

"I thought you were talking about in total, like what you were wearing and the jacket and towel were all two!"

"Nope."

"Awwwwww, c'mon!"

"Nope, last thing."

She huffed. "Fine, you're no fun. What's your phone number?"

_I can't give her the same number, she'll figure it out! _"Actually, I don't have a cell phone."

"What?! But _everybody_ has a cell phone! Then that doesn't count! I get to ask something else!"

"Okay, I guess that's fair." I _have_ been lying to her anyways.

"Ummmm, okay, how old are you?"

"I'm fourteen, how about you?" We pulled into the hospital parking lot and I unbuckled.

"That's cool, I'm fifteen. Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow then!" She waved to me as I got out of the car and hobbled into the hospital. I waved back and hurried to the lobby.

The lobby was big and open, and there were only a few people waiting in chairs since it was late. I was looking around at the posters on the walls and wondering if I should find somebody or just wait when a Saint Bernard rushed over to me.

"Lord of Chaos, lady! You best have that taken care of right away!" He exclaimed, pushing a wheelchair over to me. I had my stick taken away by another nurse, and a third nurse pushed me into the wheelchair. Five seconds later, I was being rushed down a hallway, presumably to a doctor.

I wasn't lying when I told Amy that I hated hospitals. In the future, the only thing Blaze and I could do when we got hurt or sick was wait it out; try and find some medicine to inject by ourselves; or if it was an injury, fix it by ourselves with medical supplies. Needless to say, we both had some pretty bad experiences with needles and other medically-related supplies. And when I came to this time, and got stranded here, I had to register myself in the system and get all the shots for disease protection, as well as get tested for any illnesses that I might be carrying. It quickly became very boring and tedious. Also, all the doctors wanted to do tests on me because of my powers, and they only left me alone once I agreed to a few MRIs and CAT scans. So yeah, I don't like hospitals.

I arrived in a big room with a high metal table. The nurses tried to lift me onto the table, but I refused, opting to get up on my own. They protested, but I ignored them. They fussed over me for a few minutes, cleaning up my foot and putting that annoying papery poncho-thing on and questioning me on how it happened. Finally, a doctor came in with a couple of nurses following behind him. He shooed off the first three nurses, except for the Saint Bernard, then he got to work.

He didn't say much, which was fine with me, he just took a good look at my leg and asked if he could take an X-ray. I was pretty surprised, every doctor I had ever run into hadn't cared for my choices, they just took scans and stuff without asking. I agreed to the X-ray. I took a closer look at the doctor, he was a young cat with light orange fur and black tiger stripes, he was wearing a clean white doctor's coat over his blue scrubs. If I had to guess how old he was, I would say somewhere between 20 and 25. He had two pens in his coat pocket, and a name tag that read 'Kyle Tygre DO, MD, GP' his eyes were ice blue, and when he looked at me, I felt like he was seeing more than just what I looked like, I felt like he could see me with all my secrets, and mistakes, and anything I was proud or ashamed of all at once. I was awed and terrified at the same time. It was very confusing, that gaze made me feel safe and comfortable, while at the same time I felt like I was failing an exam or being judged in the Olympics.

He quickly got to work setting up the X-ray machine and making me lay down. For once, I just did as told, I didn't want to make him upset with me. He was a very good doctor, he didn't do anything without asking me first, and he got his job done quickly and efficiently. He was definitely the best doctor I had ever met. Soon there was an image of my foot on a small screen next to the table. I didn't understand it that much, all I saw was a big white blob sort of thing that was vaguely in the shape of a foot, but doctor Tygre looked at it disapprovingly and took a few notes in a clipboard that I hadn't noticed before.

"All right now, what's your name?" He asked, looking up from his clipboard.

"It's Mercury, sir." This guy was definitely a 'sir'.

He nodded his head and scribbled my name on his paper. "And how old are you?"

"Fourteen, turning fifteen in June."

He wrote that on his form as well. "Only fourteen? You look to be somewhere around sixteen or seventeen. Very mature for your age."

"Thank you, sir." I blushed, then mentally cursed myself for being stupid.

"Please, call me Kyle, or doctor Kyle if you must. How did this happen?"

"Of course sir- I mean, doctor Kyle." I blushed again, embarrassed, and he smiled for the first time since entering the room. It was a nice smile, it made his eyes seem less calculating and scary, and he had smile wrinkles around his eyes that made him look super friendly. "Um, something heavy fell on my leg."

He rolled his eyes. "Well, that much I can tell. What were you doing? What fell on it?"

"Oh, um, I was trying to get away from this fat guy named Eggman, and he had a big machine. I ended up having to fight it, and it fell on my leg when I broke it." I smiled weakly, I wasn't sure he'd believe me.

He just nodded and scribbled something else on his clipboard. "What time was this?"

"After noon, I think about two."

He raised his eyebrows. "And what took you so long to get here?" He sounded skeptical.

"Well, I was stuck under the robot for about two hours, or maybe a bit longer, I'm not sure. Then it took me about forty-five minutes to get home so I could put on something else because my shirt was ripped, and I stayed there for almost half an hour. Then I went from my house to start walking here and I got to the main road in about half an hour, then a girl named Amy saw me and gave me a ride the rest of the way, and that took another twenty minutes. Oh, and in case you don't believe me about Eggman," I slipped the jacket off from under the paper poncho thing, "I have his coat. He gave it to me when my shirt ripped."

"Okay, I believe you, and your story checks out, Eggman came into town at around two forty-five, so if he attacked you first, that makes sense, and he didn't have his jacket on him, so now I know why as well." He wrote some more things on his clipboard, it took him a little while because he was writing a lot. When he finally looked back up he smiled warmly again. "All right, Mercury, everything seems to be in order. I'm just going to check your immunisation records in the system real quick, and then I'll be right back. Bernie will keep an eye on you." He gestured to the Saint Bernard. I sort of freaked out on the inside, _I'm not in the system! I'm completely made up! I didn't exist a few hours ago!_ I guess it showed on my face, because Kyle paused. "Gosh, darling. Bernie doesn't bite, what are you so worried about?"

"Uhh, nothing, sorry. I'm just anxious is all."

"Come on, you can't pull that over on me. I have a degree in psychology, I know when something is bothering people, spit it out." He gave me a piercing stare with those icy blue eyes, and I knew I wasn't going to get away with anything but the truth. Or at least, some of the truth.

I sighed. "Don't bother looking at your computers, I'm not in the system." He raised his eyebrows, but allowed me to continue. "I don't live near here, I've lived kind of on my own way outside the city, and I've homeschooled myself for the most part. I don't go into the city much, and this is the first time I've been to a hospital. I got all my shots, but my mom gave them to me, she used to be a nurse, I don't know her first name, or my last name, and she disappeared a few years ago. I don't know who my dad is either." Except for the part about this being the first time at a hospital and the details about my mom, most of that was true. I don't know who my parents are, and I don't know my own last name.

I managed to convince him that I was telling the truth, and he nodded sympathetically. "Okay darling, in that case, we'll register you in the system after I take care of your foot. Do you think you can remember which shots you've had?"

I nodded my head. "I have an eidetic memory, I could name them all now."

He looked impressed. "Really? then go ahead, and I'll check them off."

So I started to list the ones that I'd gotten a month ago, careful to leave off the ones that people weren't supposed to get before they turned thirteen. Thank you, eidetic memory.

When he'd checked off the last one, he capped his pen and put it back in his pocket. "Wow, your mother did a good job of getting all your shots, you only need a few more, we'll take care of that now." He walked over to a cabinet. "You say that she left you on your own a few years ago?"

"Yeah, just before I turned twelve." That was about the time when Blaze and I started separating to fight Iblis off on our own and only meeting at night, sometimes after a day or two if our meeting place was compromised.

"And you have no idea where she went? Or why she left?" He pulled out several pre-prepared needles and tubes with injections of medicine inside.

"No, not really. She just left and didn't come back. But I've been fine, I took care of most of the house stuff anyways, and she was gone most of the day, so nothing really changed."

The nurses were all quietly staring at me in pity, and doctor Kyle continued putting the shots together. "I'm sorry, everybody should be able to have a good family when growing up." He finished assembling the injections, and walked over. "Could you put your arm out for me? Don't tense it up, that will just make it hurt more than it needs to." I nodded and put my arm out for him. He offered me his hand. "You can squeeze my hand instead if it helps."

I took his hand gratefully. "Thanks doctor Kyle."

He got the first shot ready in his hand and one of the nurses held my arm steady for him. I looked away. He was right, not tensing my arm made the shot hurt a lot less, and I barely felt them at all. Five or six shots later, he let go of my hand.

"Good, that's all taken care of, Julie, could you take this form to the computer and start registering Mercury? And send in Arthur please." He handed her his clipboard. The little nurse nodded and scurried out of the room, a few minutes later, a wolf that looked a little older than Kyle came in. His name tag gave him the same titles as Kyle, plus a few more, so he must be a doctor also.

Kyle welcomed the other doctor and turned back to me. "Mercury, this is Arthur, he is our anaesthesia expert. As long as it's all right with you, he will be making sure that you are asleep while I fix your foot. If you'd rather stay awake, just tell me, and we could do a local anaesthetic, but most patients don't like seeing themselves cut open. I don't know how you are money wise, but local anaesthetic is just a bit cheaper than a full anaesthetic. And you need a guardian to sign a form for full anaesthetic since you are still a minor, but since you have none, you could sign it yourself, or I could take responsibility."

I thought about how to respond for a second. "Money isn't a problem, I'll sign the form for myself."

Kyle nodded and pulled out another form. "If you don't mind, how much money do you have?"

I grinned and took the form. "Over a million, I don't spend the money that I make on hardly anything. It builds up quickly."

Kyle looked impressed. "How do you make money if you don't ever go into town?"

I put my signature on the form, writing Mercury as neatly in cursive as I could. It actually looked pretty nice, apparently my handwriting had improved. "I make art. I sell it anonymously online, and it makes me a lot of money."

"Impressive, then it looks like your hospital bill won't be an issue, so far it's somewhere around twelve thousand."

I smiled again. "Not an issue, I'm making another piece of art, and I'll probably make up for that cost and then some."

"All right then, lets not waste any time, Arthur, do your thing. You won't feel a thing, Mercury." I nodded in agreement and Arthur pulled a metal cylinder with a mouth piece out of a cabinet. It looked kind of like a fire extinguisher, but bigger. "Okay, before we start, what's your favourite colour?" He pulled out a few coloured mesh-fabric bundles.

I pointed at the one I liked. "The yellow one. The others are too neon."

He nodded and put the other fabrics away. "The yellow is my favourite too, you have good taste."

The other doctor rolled his eyes and finished setting up the anaesthesia tank. "If you two are done chatting, I need put this over your head, girlie."

I nodded and he put the mouth piece over my mouth and pulled the strap behind my head. A nurse came in with a rolling table covered with surgical tools, and Kyle put on gloves and a surgical mask. Then Arthur switched on the gas pump, and I breathed in. Everything went fuzzy, and the last thing I saw before falling asleep was Kyle picking up a few different knives.

* * *

_Amy Rose POV_

I dialled the number again. Why isn't he picking up? The call went straight to voicemail. _Again._

_'Hello, you have called Silver the hedgehog, I am not available at the moment, but leave a message and I will call you back as soon as I can. Thanks, and have a nice day.'_ There was a beep, signalling for me to leave a message, but I hung up. I'd already left him a message.

Silver is the last one I have to get a hold of, I've already called everybody else. Sonic is coming, and so is Knuckles and Tails. Cream is coming with Charmy, Espio, Vector, and her mom. Rouge is coming, and I managed to convince Shadow to come too, mostly because he has nothing better to do. Big isn't coming, but I didn't really expect him to. This is really weird, usually Silver picks up on the first ring, and he never has his phone off. I wish I knew where he lived so I could go find him.

I really wanted him to come. He's always so bluntly honest that it's funny, and he's the only one who knows exactly how to get on Shadow's nerves. It's always really funny when both of them hang out with us. Shadow hates it when Silver reminds him who's taller, and Silver is the only one of us with enough courage to poke fun at Shadow. I also think Silver would totally get along with Mercury, I mean, they even have the same powers! Maybe Silver will find a new friend in her, someone to maybe make up for the loss of Blaze. Maybe then he'll want to hang out with us more too. I know he's kind of uncomfortable around lots of people, which is why I don't ask him to come along much, but it's always more fun when he does come. He's a really good listener too. I decided to send him a text.

'_Silver, I met this girl today, she's really nice, and she has the same pwrs as u. Pls tell me if u can meet us at the mall tmrw at 8. Thnx, bye.' _When I finished, I pressed send, and set my phone down to charge. That would have to be enough for now, if he comes, he comes. If he doesn't, oh well.

* * *

_Silver the Hedgehog POV_

I woke up to an empty room. It was still dark outside, and the clock said that it was almost midnight. It was a different room than the one I had fallen asleep in, and I was lying on a bed. I sat up to look at my leg. In the dim light, all I could make out was the general shape of the cast. It was big and bulky, and it felt pretty heavy. My foot didn't hurt anymore, so either they had numbed it, or it was getting better already. There was a wheelchair and a pair of crutches next to my bed. My stomach growled. I blushed, hoping nobody had heard it, and it rumbled again, louder. I hadn't had any dinner yet, and I was starving. I got out of the bed and grabbed the crutches. It was much easier to walk with them than it was to walk with the stick I'd had earlier.

In almost no time, I was out of the room and making my way down the lit hallway. I ran into a nurse about five minutes later, it was Bernie the Saint Bernard.

"What are you doing out of bed?" He looked surprised.

I was about to tell him when my stomach answered for me, growling louder than ever. I turned red in the face as he smiled and laughed knowingly.

"Don't worry, I'll take you to the food court. Just follow me."

So I did, he lead me to a set of elevators where we went to the top floor, labelled 'Cafeteria'.

"Here you are, just go ahead and order something, all you have to do is tell them your name and they'll give you food. It's free for patients."

"Thank you, sorry to bother you at this hour."

"No problem, its my job. I'm going to go get Kyle, he wanted to know when you woke up, just stay here, okay?"

"Okay, I will. Thanks again!"

He smiled and waved, turning to leave and go back down in the elevator. I walked over to the serving counter. There was a single lady behind the counter washing dishes. She looked up when I approached and put down her dish.

"Hey there, sweetie. What do you have in mind?" She dried her hands on a towel and pulled on a pair of plastic gloves to prepare food.

"Uhhh, what do you have?" I didn't want to trouble her too much.

"I don't have anything prepared at the moment, so go ahead and tell me what you'd like and I'll whip some up. And I'll need your name too."

"Oh, right, my name is Mercury. I'll just have a sandwich, if that's all right. Do you have Nutella and jam?"

She checked a list on her computer. "Mercury... Got it. Yes, we do. I'll go and make you one right away." She disappeared through a door and came back with bread, a jar of Nutella, a jar of strawberry jam, and a butter knife. She made the sandwich expertly, with an even layer on both slices of bread. She put it on a plate and stuck a toothpick flag in it for fun. She pushed it over to me. "There ya go sweetie, do you want anything else? How about something to drink?"

"Thank you, um, yeah, do you have tea?" I took the plate from her and she nodded.

"What flavour dear? We have Earl Grey, passion fruit and pomegranate, green tea, and classic Tetley tea."

"Green tea please."

"Sure thing, just go sit down and I'll bring it to you."

I went to sit at the closest table so she wouldn't have to walk very far, there was already someone sitting there, his arm was in a sling. He was the only other person in the cafeteria besides the lady that was making my tea. I put my plate down next to him and he looked up. He was a green hedgehog, he had sapphire blue eyes, and he wore a black leather jacket and black jeans with metallic studs. He had a couple of earrings and was wearing a few gold bracelets on his arms. He vaugely reminded me of someone that I knew. He pretty much looked like trouble, but I had already put my plate down, and it would be rude to leave.

"Hey beautiful, my name is Scourge, mind telling me yours?" He asked once I sat down.

The way he was staring at me made me feel very uncomfortable. "Uh, hi. I'm Mercury, nice to meet you."

"Mercury is a nice name, how did you break your leg?" He took a gulp from his cherry coke.

"Something really heavy fell on it, how did you break your arm?" I took a bite of my sandwich, it tasted really good.

"That doctor Eggman guy came into town earlier today, he mistook me for that idiotic Sonic loser. It's a good thing that I'm tougher than I look, or I might not have gotten off this easy, it's only a fracture. I did all the _real_ work, but as always, Sonic came in and finished him off, so of course _he's_ the hero. Nice cast by the way, the yellow looks good on you. What're you doing up so late?"

"What a coincidence! I was fighting Eggman's robot and when I beat it, it fell on my leg. Thank you." I blushed involuntarily at his compliment. "I could ask you the same thing, I'm up late because I got to the hospital late, and I didn't have dinner before I got here." The lady came around the counter with my green tea and set it down in front of me. I thanked her and turned back to Scourge, who looked impressed and surprised. I took the last bite of my sandwich, wow, it hadn't lasted long, but I felt pretty full.

"You took out a whole Mecha by yourself? That's hardcore, girl. I'm up late because I want to be. Also 'cuz the docs are all tellin' me that I need sleep, so I'm staying up to annoy them." he leaned in to whisper to me. "It's pretty funny, you should have seen the look on my doc's face when he finally got me to my room, and then I demanded to get a soda! He just gave up, and now he's letting me do what I want." He leaned back and laughed. "I can't wait to get outta here in the morning, me and my gang were planning to hang at the mall. Hey, you wanna come with? It'll be a ton of fun, and I can show you around, you must be new around here, cuz I ain't seen you around before, and there's no way I would forget a face as pretty as yours. So, what do you say?"

I hesitated and took a long sip from my tea to hide the pause, this guy obviously didn't think much of Sonic, he probably wouldn't take too well to me declining his offer to hang out with Sonic and his friends instead. "I can't wait to leave too, I don't think much of being stuck in a hospital. This is my first time in one." I tried to change the subject, but Scourge wasn't fazed.

"Really? So is that a yes?"

I decided to stay vague. "Actually, the girl that gave me a ride here already offered to take me to the mall with her friends. They're picking me up here in the morning. Maybe some other time."

Scourge didn't look like he was about to be deterred. "But I'm hanging at the mall too, why don't we all hang out together?"

I didn't really have a choice but to tell him. "Well, if we go to the same malls, I'm not going to stop you. But, you see, the girl that I ran into was Amy Rose, she's Sonic's girlfriend. At least, that's what she told me. And I'm getting a feeling that you don't like Sonic very much."

Scourge scowled. "Well, you would be right. Sonic is a completely stuck-up jerk. No, that doesn't even begin to describe how much I dislike him. Why don't you ditch him and hang out with me instead? He and his friends are all losers, you won't be missing out on anything."

"I already promised Amy I would come, I'd love to hang out some other time, but I'm not the kind of person who ditches people." I'd never met this guy before, but boy, did he have one heck of a grudge against Sonic.

Scourge was about to reply, but then the elevator dinged and slid open noisily. Doctor Kyle walked out of the elevator followed by the nurse from before, I think her name was Julie. Scourge gave the doctor a distasteful look and finished the rest of his coke. He then crushed the can and made a perfect shoot into the bin, hardly even looking.

"See ya in the morning, Mercury." He got up and left, glaring at Kyle on the way out. I wondered what had gotten into him, why he disliked Kyle so much.

Kyle coughed to get my attention. "I'm glad to see that you're awake and feeling well. I just need to talk about your records for the system." I nodded, signalling him to go ahead. "First, I need to know your house address. I also need any phone numbers you have, and any illnesses you've had in the past. That should do for now."

When I had been to the hospital before, when I was still male, I hadn't had a house yet, so I had no problem telling him where I lived. "I live five kilometres directly southeast of the city. It's kind of in the middle of nowhere, so it doesn't have a name, and there isn't a road to it. It's close to Eterna Forest. I don't have a phone, or a cell phone. And I haven't had anything more serious than the flu or a cold. Is that all you need?"

"That will do for now, but we may need to contact you, so I advise you get a phone and give us the number. Do you have an email or something that we could reach you at?"

I thought about it for a second, drinking the last of my tea before answering. "Yeah, it's painteronfire , I usually check that once a day." That was the email that I had used to sell my art at. I put my mug on my plate and picked them both up to take back to the cafeteria lady. "Is that all?" I asked again, Kyle nodded and wrote my email down. I left the table to give my dishes to the lady.

When I was done with that, I returned to the elevator where the doctor and nurse were both waiting as well. I said my farewells at my floor and got off. I made my way back to my room, thanks to my eidetic memory, I remembered where it was. I was still wearing just a towel and jeans, but there was a pair of hospital pyjamas on the bed's footboard. I grabbed them and walked back out of my room to look for a bathroom to change in. As soon as I walked out the door, I knocked right into someone. Our noses crashed into each other, and I stumbled back, rubbing mine.

"Ow, ow, ow... What the...?" I looked up too see who I'd crashed into. It was Scourge. "Oh, uh, hello again."

Scourge was rubbing his own nose as well. "Sorry Mercury, I just wanted to check up on you. I don't trust doctor Kyle, his eyes are... Strange. I can't explain it, but he makes me uneasy. So what'd he want?"

Wow this guy is persistent. "Oh, I just needed to update my hospital records, no big deal. Thanks for caring, though."

I couldn't believe my eyes. Scourge... Blushed. I don't know the guy that well, but I can tell he doesn't usually blush. Does he like me or something? Oh my gosh, he can't like me! I'm a guy! Well, I don't look like a guy... But that's besides the point. At heart, I'm still Silver.

"That's cool, no problem. Well, I can tell you're busy, sooo... I guess I'll just go back to my room then. See ya." I watched him head back down the corridor, fast walking, then running once he got around the corner. I recognised that far too well. That's what I used to do when I did something awkward around Blaze, and wanted to get away before she judged me. Ugh, just great. He liked me.

I sighed and followed a sign that pointed to the bathrooms. When I got there, there was a depressing moment when I wasn't sure which bathroom I should go in. I was still a guy mentally, I think. I didn't want to see any girls in the girls bathroom. But it would look really weird if a girl walked into the boys bathroom... Thankfully, there was the family bathroom, which was just a little room and the door locked, so I chose that one. It didn't matter which gender you were for that bathroom.

I locked the door and closed my eyes shut to get changed. Even though it was my own body, I felt like it was wrong to look at myself. I got the pyjamas on without a problem. They were a good fit, I vaguely wondered how they knew which size I was. When I opened my eyes, once again, I was impressed and surprised with the young girl in the mirror staring back at me. I really was very pretty, and I could see why Scourge might like me. Now I remember all those times Sonic and Shadow made fun of me for being girly, and saying that I looked like a girl. Boy, were they wrong. This was what me as a girl looked like, and they were _way_ off. I still vaguely resembled myself, like my arms still had glowing blue stripes, and my fur was still the same shade of silver-white as it had always been, and the two locks of hair that framed my face looked a bit like two of my five quills from before, except they hung down rather than stuck up. My eyes were still surrounded by a thick black outline, but it looked slightly thicker than before. My eyes were still amber coloured. The biggest difference in my face was that my eyes looked much bigger in my face, probably because my face was smaller, and my hair covered a lot of it. But I can see now why Amy didn't recognise me. My hair and body alone are more than enough to make me unrecognisable. Also, I was at a least a good five centimetres shorter than I normally was, not counting the extra height my hair usually gave me. I used to be three centimetres taller than Shadow, now I was probably two shorter, that's going to bug me. One thing I always held over Shadow was how I was taller than him, but now I couldn't say that anymore. I really hope Shadow doesn't come tomorrow, it will be so awkward for me. I'll have to pretend like I have no idea who he is, but I don't know how long I can hide the fact that he scares the shit out of me. Yeah, it would be better if he didn't come.

Then something caught my attention. There was a glowing in the pocket of my jeans on the floor. I picked them up to check inside, sitting on the sink counter. It was my cell phone, I had accidentally turned it on when I dropped the jeans on the floor. I looked at the screen. **'23 missed calls, 1 message, 1 text' **it said. They were all from Amy. There was no way I could call her back, but she had texted me, so I might as well text her back.

The text read: '_Silver, I met this girl today, she's really nice, and she has the same pwrs as u. Pls tell me if u can meet us at the mall tmrw at 8. Thnx, bye.'_

I texted back: _'Sry Amy, she sounds nice, but I've got some issues atm, I can't come to town tmrw, cya some other time.' _**(For you non-texters, atm means 'at the moment')**

I hoped that was good enough for her. Of course, if I couldn't figure out how to get back to being me, I wouldn't see her again, ever. But, at least I can still text her. I'll have to come up with a reason for why I've disappeared in case I can't fix myself, but I'll deal with that later, I'm too tired now.

I picked up my jeans and put the phone, now off, back in the pocket and folded them up. I also picked up the towel and folded it too. Then I unlocked the door and walked back down to my room. My bare foot made almost no sound on the tile, only the crutches made a small creaking sound, but every now and then I heard foot steps behind me. As soon as I turned around though, they stopped, and I couldn't see anything strange. I brushed it off, I was probably just imagining things, it _is_ pretty late. By the time I got to my room, it was really bothering me though, I felt like someone was watching me. I got in the room and locked the door, then I covered myself in the blankets and tried to sleep. Eventually I gave in to exhaustion and drifted off.

* * *

_Mephiles the Dark POV_

I watched from the shadows as my prey fell asleep. I had been following Silver for at least a month now, building up my strength so that I could strike the final blow. Something strange had occurred today though. I had gotten bored of following and teleported to Silver's house to wait for him there. But instead of Silver arriving soon after I got there, a girl with a very bad-looking leg had come long after I had left Silver. She could not fool me. Silver may have somehow changed his form to that of a female, but his soul remained the same. The pure soul that will be mine soon enough. He could not hide from me by changing his form. I will take that pure soul of his, hers, whatever. I will take it and use its purity to power myself and wreak vengeance on all those who stood against me before! The power from the purity of someone whom has never done, or attempted to do, an evil thing in their life will make it so that nothing will be able to stand in the way of Mephiles the Dark! Silver will die, and through that death, I will rule all of Mobius. Nothing will remain.

But I couldn't keep a thought from nagging at the back of my mind as I watched the sleeping girl. Silver made quite a beautiful female. No matter how much I tried to shake it off, and remind myself of how much I despise the hedgehog, the thought remained, and grew. She looked so innocent and fragile, when Silver was male, all I wanted was to crush his innocence and purity, and use it to power myself. All I saw in innocence was power. Now, looking at this beautiful girl, I could see why innocence was valued so much more than that.

I could see why the cat, Blaze had cared so deeply for this hedgehog, and why my enemy, Shadow was so frustrated and jealous whenever he saw Silver. I could see why Amy was always wanting to ask him to hang out with her, but afraid that if she bothered him too much, he wouldn't want to be her friend. And why Sonic brags so much more when he's around Silver, and Tails tries to keep proving that he's smarter. All of them can sense his innocence, just as well as I can see their emotions. Blaze wanted nothing more than to protect his innocence, though she referred to it as him being naive. Shadow is far from innocent, and so he feels jealous of such purity. Amy is one of the most pure of the group, so she naturally wants to be closer to someone as innocent as Silver. Sonic and Tails both feel inadequate when faced with Silver, so they try their best to best him in other ways.

Even her lies today hadn't tainted her in any way, they had all been uttered under the belief that she was now a different person, and most of them were based off of truth. Silver was truly amazing. How he possibly managed to say so innocent in a world so cruel and unforgiving was truly a mystery to me. I had worried that Shadow's bullying of Silver could have ended in the destruction of his innocence, but even the Ultimate Life Form could not ruin Silver. Silver was even so innocent as to be ignorant of how pure he was.

I had been drawn to him in the future as well, the same way that a moth is drawn to a light in the night. His entire life, he had tried to do nothing but good. He risked his own life for that of others, he fought Iblis off, but seeing his fighting in a different way from Blaze, which is what made him pure, and not her. He saw the war the same way that a child might, as 'right and wrong', he did not see what Blaze saw. She saw Iblis as an oppressor which needed to be destroyed completely, and should not be given any chances. She saw the war as 'us versus them'. She was willing to sacrifice herself, and others in order to achieve her goal. That made all the difference. Silver would never let anyone else get hurt in order to win, and that nearly got him killed many times, but his powers served him well, and he always managed to survive. He never thought badly of anyone else, even Shadow, Eggman, and myself. I could tell that Blaze was on guard from the moment she saw me, but Silver immediately accepted me and gave me the benefit of the doubt. And deciding to take out Sonic was something that was very difficult for him to comprehend. And in the end, one single girl was enough to stop him. The word of one girl which he barely knew was enough to convince him to not go ahead with something that could possibly save his world. His best friend and I had both told him it was the only way to win, and he still did not take his chance. I had chosen Silver for the task of destroying Sonic because I had hoped to destroy his purity along with releasing Iblis, but my plan had failed, and Silver had ended up helping in my downfall. In that instance, his innocence had almost worked in my favour, but once again his purity protected him and he aided Sonic in winning the war.

For chaos sake, she couldn't even tell one white lie today without making reference to the truth or feeling like a terrible person. I mean, _come on_. _Everyone_ lies. But Silver had lied, or bent the truth, more today than he had in his whole life. How is that even possible? Yet he, she, Silver was still completely innocent and free of impurity. I guess that made my plan still possible.

Silver had not willingly looked at herself naked yet, but I feared that as soon as she did, the innocence would be tainted, causing my plan to no longer work. I had to work quickly. But I could not seem to bring myself to lay a finger on her sleeping form. I told myself that I would need to be stronger before I could take her soul, and that it would be no fun to extinguish her while she slept, that I would enjoy it more when she was awake and could fight back. I left in search of more power. I will come back at sunrise and continue my watch, perhaps I will be able to attack when she wakes.

* * *

**AN: Wow, 25 pages... So that's part one. I hope you liked it! Don't forget to fave, follow, and comment.**

**yay for random Mephiles stalking!**

**SONIC SHADOW SILVER ROLE PLAY XD**

**Silver: Yes! Favourite and follow this story! I know the future, and you will like it! Foooooollllllloooooowwww iiiiiiiiiiiitttttttttt. I dare you!**

**Shadow: Geez Silver, chill. I think they get the point. So what **_**does**_** happen in this story? Do I get to laugh at you for turning into a girl? Because that would make me happy. Sort of.**

**Silver: you'll see...**

**Sonic: Hey guys! What's up? Anybody wanna go get some chilidogs? Tails and Knuckles won't go with me, they said something about already eating, but I'm starved! Lets go!**

**Shadow: ...**

**Silver: ...**

**Shadow: Since when do you need somebody to go with you?**

**Sonic: What? Can't I just want a friend to hang out with?**

**Silver: Yesterday you said I was a loser and a slowpoke. And you yanked my quills. And now I'm a friend?**

**Shadow: ... Faker, I'm not your friend. Get over yourself.**

**Sonic: C'mon guys... You know I didn't mean that Silver; and Shadow, I'm one of the closest people you have to a friend. You two should just come with me out of respect for all the times we've kicked Eggman's butt together.**

**Silver: *stares*... Shadow? Do you have respect for Sonic?**

**Shadow: *smirks* not in the slightest, and you?**

**Silver: Ditto.**

**Sonic: Come on, please? Just this once? You don't even have to buy anything, just come with me!**

**Shadow: First, why do you need us to come with you? I'm not moving until you spill it, Faker.**

**Silver: Same here, Iblis Trigger.**

**Sonic: *sigh* Fine. It's because Scourge and his gang are by the chilidog stand. And I owe Scourge fifty rings. I need back-up or he'll beat me up! I have the rings I owe him here, but he'll beat me up anyways if I'm all alone. I need you guys! Tails and Knuckles won't help me because they aren't really a match for his gang, but you two are!**

**Shadow: Doesn't sound like my problem.**

**Silver: *sympathetic* Fine Iblis Trigger, but only because I'm a nice person. You better remember this next time you wanna make fun of me. And Shadow, come on, its not like you have anything better to do. And you'll have fun terrorising Scourge...**

**Shadow: *imagining the possibilities* okay, I'm in.**

**Sonic: woohoo! Thanks Silver! *glomp mode activate***

**Sonic grabs their arms and runs off to the chilidog stand. Scourge doesn't stand a chance ;)**

**Thanks for reading! -Silverfangirl96**


	2. Chapter 2- The Next Morning

**AN: I have an edit to make. As pointed out, if Vanilla is 19, then she'd have to have been 13 when she had Cream, which isn't very realistic (However, when I looked up her and Cream's ages, that's what it officially said O.o oh my, SEGA, what are you promoting?). I just looked up the official ages without thinking, but I'm going to change her age from 19 to 24, so she had Cream at eighteen rather than thirteen. That still makes her a pretty naughty bunny though. Also, I'm changing Vector's age from 20 to 25, I just have a feeling that he should be a year older than her, and also, it sounds better that a 25 year old runs a detective agency rather than a 20 year old.**

**And Shadow's kind of complicated, I have to write physically, because technically, he's been around for 57 years, and he's only been conscious for 7 of them, so he's emotionally a seven year old. Yet he has the training of a well seasoned soldier, and the vocabulary to match. Also the trauma of Maria's death may have forced him to grow up faster than he should have. Mentally, I put him as between 20-30; physically he's 16; emotionally, he's still a traumatised 7 year old. But technically, he's 57... Yeah, Shadow has issues. (Lol, he's 5 years older than Eggman u)**

**So here's the ages again (added some characters that I forgot before that may or may not show up in the story):**

**Silver: 14 Sonic: 16 Shadow: 16 (physically) Tails: 8 Eggman: 52 Amy: 15 Cream: 6 Scourge: 17**

**Blaze: 16 Big: 18 Espio: 17 Charmy: 9 Vector: 25 Vanilla: 24 Rouge: 18 Knuckles: 17**

**Jet: 18 Wave: 19 Storm: 17 Omega: ? (unknown, he's robot) Kyle Tygre: 28 Sofia: 17**

**thanks for the favourites, follows and Reviews! Here is chapter two:**

**I do not own any of the Sonic heroes or villains, they belong to SEGA (c) and Sonic Team (c)**

**I do however, own: the design of Mercury, Kyle Tygre, the secretary (kind of a stereotype though), and Sofia. And whatever random passerby and people I choose to give a line or a description.**

* * *

Chapter 2- The Next Morning (for lack of a better title)

_Silver POV_

I woke up to the sound of voices outside my door. They were arguing about something, and I tried to rouse myself enough to distinguish what they were saying. There was a girl arguing with two other boys about something. Eventually I strained my ears enough to hear what they were saying.

"I'm telling you, this is the right room. Doctor Kyle said it was number 134." The girl told the other two calmly, though she sounded like she was ready to throttle them.

"I'm fairly sure he said it was number 135, Amy." I knew the voice, but I couldn't quite place it in my tiredness. Then I realised that he was talking to Amy, and I sat up in my bed, wide awake.

The third voice was Sonic's. "Why don't we just try this door, Shadow, and then if its the wrong room, we can apologise and try number 135." Shit, the other male was Shadow, so he _was_ coming.

"I don't know about you, faker, but I don't enjoy looking like a fool, so I would rather check first." Came the scathing reply from Shadow. I decided to burst his bubble and prove that he was the one who was wrong about the room numbers.

I put on a big grin and straightened out my pyjamas. Without bothering to grab my crutches, I ran-hobbled over to the door, unlocked it, and pulled it open to greet Amy.

In my rush to open the door, I knocked it into my cast, and nearly fell on my face. "Hi Amy! Whoa!" Thank goodness someone caught me.

"Careful there." A deep voice above me said, then helped me back up onto my feet. When I was standing up again, I saw who had saved me from another doctor's appointment. It was Shadow, he had a grip on my shoulders, making sure I was steady before letting go. The other two were across the hall, standing in front of a door labelled 134. Shadow had been quick enough to jump across the hall and catch me. I felt so embarrassed, and I could feel the heat rising to my cheeks. I checked the open door to my room, it read 135.

"I told you it was room 135." Shadow said, rolling his eyes at his two companions, who were grinning, and walking across the hallway into my room.

Amy huffed. "Fine, you win Shadow. Happy now?"

"Not particularly." He retorted, smirking.

Amy rolled her eyes and turned to me, smiling again. "Good morning Mercury! How was your night?"

I was still blushing furiously from having been wrong about my room number, and having to be rescued by Shadow, of all people. I was just glad that it was still pretty dark in the room because no one had turned the lights on yet. "Uh, it was okay, I had a good doctor. How are you? Who are your friends?" I figure I should ask now so I don't slip up and call them they're names accidentally without them telling me.

"That's good, I'm feeling great! Thanks for asking. As for my friends, this is Sonic!" She put her arm around the blue hedgehog, catching him off guard. "And that's Shadow." She pointed with her thumb at the gloomy hedgehog, he was standing a safe distance away from her so he wouldn't get the same treatment as Sonic.

"Nice to meet you guys, if she hasn't already told you, my name is Mercury." I grinned at the two of them, barely managing to force myself to smile at Shadow, and flipped the light switch on so we could all see better.

Shadow rolled his eyes. "Oh believe me, she's told us."

"Over and over." Sonic finished, laughing.

"Hey! Guys..."Amy pouted, drawing out the words. "Stop being so mean..."

Sonic tried to stop laughing, but failed. Shadow started smirking with him. I felt bad for her and decided to back her up. I hobbled over and put my arm around her.

"Yeah, really guys. She's just excited, is that a crime? Geez, grow up." Sonic shut up and looked ashamed. Shadow stopped smirking and looked somewhat impressed as he seemed to size me up. I really don't get him at all. I realised that I was going to need my crutches if I wanted to go to the mall. Shadow was closest, so I asked him.

"Hey, Shadow, would you grab my crutches for me? They're right next to you." He looked a bit caught off guard, but looked to his side to see them. Then he nodded and grabbed them for me, handing them over without a word.

Amy smiled really big. "Oh, right. Mercury, I brought you a change of clothes!" She held up a big paper bag stuffed full of clothing.

I smiled warily. "That's... A lot of clothes, how much did you think I'd need?" Sonic snickered, but I shot him a look that hopefully said 'Don't. Even. Start.' He stopped instantly and poker faced. I wondered why he was obeying me, maybe it had something to do with being a pretty girl, or maybe it was because I was injured. Oh well, I'm not questioning it.

"I wasn't sure what kind of things you liked to wear, so I brought in a whole bunch of outfits!"

"Thanks Amy, but do you have just some jeans and a shirt?"

She looked a bit disappointed. "Yeah, but I brought a bunch of way cuter things... Oh well." She pulled out a pair of designer jeans, with a printed silver design going down one leg, and along with that, she pulled out a light blue sleeveless blouse with ruffles in the front. I looked at them skeptically, they looked very girly. But I guess I should just be grateful that I have _something_ nice to wear to the mall. I smiled thankfully at her.

"Thank you so much. These are perfect." She handed them over to me happily.

"You can keep them! I never wear this sort of thing anymore, and they're a size too small for me anyways. I was actually going to donate them, but then I figured they might fit you, so now I'm donating them to you!" She looked so happy to give me something that I couldn't help but smile too.

"I appreciate it, these are nicer than any of my clothes. Let's head to the bathroom so I can put them on."

"Of course! Lets get going!" Amy pushed me out the door before her. I quickly grabbed my jeans, towel, and Eggman's jacket off the bed. I was trying to keep up with her pace when as soon as I got outside my door, I knocked heads with someone. I staggered back, holding my nose.

"Sorry, sorry!" Amy apologised behind me as I groaned and looked to see who I'd run into.

"Oh, hello again Scourge." I smiled at the irony of having run into him twice, in the same way. He was also holding his nose. There were two other male Mobians behind him, both wearing more or less the same general attire as him. They looked bored, like they had been dragged this way against their will. They perked up when they saw me, though.

"We really have to stop meeting this way." He joked, half smiling.

I laughed. "What are the odds? Good morning, by the way." I added, remembering my manners.

"Scourge?" Someone behind me growled. I swung around and Scourge looked over my shoulder.

Sonic had his ears flat on his head, and he looked pretty ticked off. His teeth were showing in a snarl, and his eyes were narrowed to little more than slits.

"Sonic," Scourge acknowledged coolly from over my shoulder. He didn't sound all too pleased to see Sonic either. Now that I could see them both together, I realised who Scourge reminded me of. He looked exactly like Sonic, he could be his twin, if only his fur and eyes were the right colours.

Shadow and Amy also seemed to recognise Scourge, and both of them looked displeased at his arrival as well. Maybe not as angry as Sonic, but still very unhappy.

"What are _you_ doing here?" Shadow growled, he was glaring at Scourge like he was looking at a cockroach or a rat, or some other undesirable pest. I was kind of worried, they weren't gonna fight or anything, right? I turned around to look at Scourge again, he still looked pretty calm, but his eyes had a scary glint to them that told me all that I needed to know. Scourge hated Sonic and the rest even more than Sonic hated him.

Scourge gestured to his sling. "Are you blind? I'm at a hospital because I'm hurt. Really Shadow, I thought you might be able to put two and two together." He smirked at the hedgehog behind me, and I took a step back so that I could see everybody. Scourge stepped into the room, his two friends behind him also glaring at Sonic, Shadow, and Amy.

Shadow growled menacingly and his quills bristled as he death-glared Scourge. Amy also growled at the green hedgehog. I figured that I should probably intervene, since I'm sort of the neutral party here.

"Hey, guys. Can we just, not resort to being animals? We're in a hospital, for Chaos sake. Lets use our words, okay? Honestly." Great, I sound like a teacher. All eyes turned to me, Shadow looked annoyed, but also impressed, Amy looked relieved that someone had stepped in, Sonic looked surprised that he was interrupted, Scourge looked just like Shadow, and his two goons just looked annoyed. I was afraid of everybody looking at me, and I was about to back off and let them have their way when Amy rescued me.

"She's right. We're in a hospital, lets put our differences aside for the time being. So, Mercury, how do you know Scourge?" I smiled in relief when she drew the attention from me.

I responded carefully. "I met him in the cafeteria last night, we talked for a while, and he was pretty nice."

Shadow and Sonic both let out a harsh laugh. "Scourge, nice? Yeah, right." Sonic said sarcastically.

I sighed. "Lets just go to the restrooms so I can get changed."

"Yeah, the sooner she changes, the sooner we can go." Amy reminded them, and then grabbed my arm to drag me out of the room. I had a hard time keeping up on my crutches, but somehow I managed not to fall over. The rest followed behind, Sonic and Shadow staying as far away from Scourge and his friends as possible in the wide hallway. Amy got to the restrooms and didn't even pause before dragging me into the girls' bathrooms. It took all of my willpower to act like it didn't bother me.

"Are you sure you don't want to try something cuter? I've got loads of outfits that would look just amazing on you! Come on, please?" She looked at me with puppy dog eyes.

I've never really been able to say no to Amy. "Do you have anything yellow?" I asked with a shy smile.

She grinned so widely I thought her face might break. She squealed. "Yes!" Then she jumped excitedly and grabbed her bag. She rifled through it for a second before pulling out something yellow. She held it out for me to look at. "So, what do you think? Pretty, huh?"

It was a knee-length strapless summer dress with orange sunflower patterns on the skirt. The skirt was layered so that it was puffed up. The chest part was small and made of a shiny yellow-gold satin-y fabric. It looked like the kind of thing you see supermodels wearing at a beach on magazines and stuff, totally not the kind of thing I really wanted to wear. Girl or otherwise. I guess I didn't hide my reaction very well, because Amy's smile faded.

"You don't like it, do you?" She started to put it back.

I knew I was going to regret this, but I didn't want to hurt her feelings. "No, its just... It's so beautiful. I've never worn anything like it." Amy's face lit up again.

"Really? You think its nice? It's just a dress that I wore to a beach party once, and I thought it might look great on you! Here." She handed it to me and pushed me into the handicapped stall. "Go put it on, and if you need help, then just ask."

I held up the dress in front of myself. I wasn't really sure of what to do with it.

"Oh wait, I wasn't sure if you had one, so... Um, here." Amy tossed something over the stall door and I deftly caught it with my psychokinesis.

"Thanks Amy." I picked it out of the air and looked to see what it was.

"Don't mention it." I heard her plop herself down on the sink counter.

I looked back to the thing in my hand. I straightened it out and nearly passed out when I saw what she had given me. I dropped it and clasped a hand over my own mouth to make sure I didn't make any sounds. When I calmed down, I picked it up again because I knew I should probably wear it. It was two rounded pieces of fabric connected by a thin piece of fabric running around in a loop with a clasp at the back. It was... a... Bra.

I shivered as I looked at it. This is just so... Awkward. I took a deep breath to calm myself. Okay, I can do this, its just... Like, a glove. Yeah, it's like gloves. Except... It goes... Somewhere else.

"Hey, you okay in there? We should hurry up before Sonic and Scourge start a fight." Amy called to me from the sink.

"Uhh, yeah, just a minute." I decided to just not think about it. I'll treat the dress like a shirt and put it on that way.

I shut my eyes tight and got undressed. I used psychokinesis to clasp the... Bra... Behind my back, and I pulled the dress on over top. It was really tight, but I guess it has to be since there aren't any straps. I pulled my hair out from the back of the dress where it had been caught and shifted the dress around until it felt more comfortable.

"All right, I'm coming out." I unlocked the stall door and walked out awkwardly.

Amy gasped. Her eyes went wide and her mouth went into the shape of an 'O'. I thought I had done something wrong. I looked down at the dress thinking that I had ripped it or something. Nothing looked wrong, so I looked back to her, perplexed.

"What? What's wrong?" I asked, hoping she'd snap out of it.

She looked up at me, surprised. "What? Nothing's wrong, its just..." She squealed. "Oh my gosh! You look so pretty! You wear it so much better than I do! Yellow's a great colour on you! It goes so well with your eyes! Oh my gosh! You're just so cute I could die! Please let me do your hair too! Pleeeeeeaaaaaase?"

I sighed in relief, at least I hadn't done anything odd. But the way Amy was looking at me oddly reminded me of the one time I had hung out with her and her friend, Cream. The rabbit had begged me to play dress up with her, and I had caved. Shadow and Sonic had laughed so hard when they saw the picture. But Amy isn't a little girl, and this time I am a girl, so I guess I could let her do something with my hair.

"Sure, but nothing too fancy, remember, the guys are waiting."

"Yay!" Amy produced a hairbrush from her purse. She also pulled out a pair of simple brown sandals with heels. "Here, put this on." She handed me the left one.

I smiled at her excitement and hopped onto the counter to pull the shoe on. Thank goodness the heel wasn't that high, or I'd never be able to walk on it. It was only about a centimetre tall. I dropped back down and managed to keep my balance. Amy turned me around and began brushing out my hair. There were a few knots in it from all the walking and craziness yesterday. It was painful, but I dealt with it. It's just hair.

Amy got the knots out quickly and began styling my hair. I didn't see what she was doing, but she was taking small bunches of my hair from the locks on the sides of my face and pulling them behind my head.

Five minutes later she finished. "Alright! That should do! Lets go make sure the guys aren't making a scene." She smiled and stuffed her hairbrush in the bag. I took a quick look in the mirror before she dragged me away. She had taken bunches of my hair from along the side of my head and braided them and pulled them all together behind my head. It was simple, but looked really nice, especially with the dress and sandals. I smiled and imagined what Blaze would say if she saw a girl that looked like me.

Probably something like: 'look at that dress, its completely unpractical, there is no way anybody could fight like that. And those sandals are no good for walking, you'd get tired after an hour. Her hair would be in her face all the time, she couldn't see an attack coming from a mile away.' She's always so serious. She was always the more down to earth one of the two of us. It was kind of my job to make sure she had fun every now and then. She'd probably take someone dressed like me and give her a complete makeover and turn her into a formidable warrior.

I followed Amy out of the bathroom. Thankfully, the boys hadn't started anything in the hallway.

"Hey Ames, we ready to go?" Sonic asked. He looked back to me and his jaw dropped. I had to grin, his expression was priceless. "Whoa. Mercury."

I looked to Shadow and Scourge, they both had similar expressions. Amy laughed with me.

"Uh-hm, uh, what happened to the jeans and t-shirt?" Sonic asked.

I shrugged. "Amy's very persuasive."

Shadow looked me up and down. "It... It appears so." Was he blushing?

"Wow, you sure you don't wanna ditch these losers and hang with my gang?" Scourge asked me.

By now I'm getting pretty fed up with him. But I remembered what Blaze used to do when I was bugging her. She used to count to ten in her head, then list what I was doing wrong. I figured I might try that. I closed my eyes and quickly counted to ten in my head.

When I opened my eyes, I looked at Scourge in annoyance. "Okay, first of all, they aren't losers, so I'd appreciate it if you stopped calling them that. Second of all, I'm sure you're plenty of fun to hang with, but I already agreed to spend the day with Amy. Thirdly, please quit staring at me like that, you're making me uncomfortable."

The green hedgehog looked like he'd been slapped, but he quickly recovered. He opened and closed his mouth a few times before setting his jaw in a frown. "Fine. You win. Se ya 'round" he waved for his friends to follow him as he walked away down the corridor.

I rolled my eyes and blew a strand of hair out of my face. "I don't remember there being a contest..." I mumbled. I looked back to the trio of hedgehogs in front of me. The boys looked stunned and had their mouths hanging slightly ajar.

I smirked and took my chance to get back at Shadow. "Close your mouths and lets go." I threw his own words from yesterday back at him. Then Amy and I walked down the hall grinning.

Shadow and Sonic caught up soon enough. "Well done, I've never seen that before." Sonic said.

"Seen what?" I asked, oblivious as usual.

"Scourge speechless. That was beautiful." He laughed, and Shadow smirked with him.

"Thanks for sticking up for us, that was really nice of you. You hardly even know us." Amy told me gratefully.

"It was nothing, its the least I can do with how nice you've been to me." I smiled at her.

She grinned. "I can tell already, we're gonna have so much fun today!"

We made our way down to the reception so I can sign out and pay my bill. Scourge was down there too, arguing with the secretary.

"This is crazy! All I did was get a sling! You've got to be kidding me!" He was waving a piece of paper around like he wanted to get rid of it.

"Sorry sir, but that's how much it costs. If you don't like it, take it up with the government." The lady replied calmly, further infuriating the displeased hedgehog.

"But I can't pay this! I'll go broke!" He responded frantically.

"That's not my problem, but you see those guards there?" The secretary pointed to two burly guys at the door and Scourge nodded. "They're not going to let you leave unless you pay for your stay. So I suggest you find a way to pay for this before I have to make a call."

Scourge sized up the guards, then sighed. "Fine, let me make a call real quick."

"Good choice." The secretary said, and leaned back in her chair.

"Wow, never thought I'd feel bad for Scourge, but that's harsh." I heard Amy whisper behind me.

I sighed and walked up to Scourge. He was dialling something on his cell phone. I tapped his shoulder to get his attention. "Hey, let me see that." I held my hand out for his bill.

He jumped when I touched him. "Oh, Mercury, its just you. Uh, how long have you been here?"

"Long enough. Let me see your bill." I responded.

He handed it over and I glanced at the total before walking over to the secretary. It was around five thousand rings.

"Hey, what are you doing?" He asked, I ignored him and got the secretary's attention.

I pulled out my wallet and handed her my credit card and the bill. "Here, charge it to this." Five thousand rings is nothing to me.

The secretary raised an eyebrow but took my credit card. Her eyes widened when she saw the total on my bank account.

"Oh my, yes... Ma'am. Is there anything else you need?" She looked flustered and eyed me respectfully.

"Yeah, I need to pay my own bill too. My name is Mercury."

I waited as she looked my name up. I looked at Scourge out of the corner of my eye. He was staring at me like I was the greatest thing that he'd seen in a long time. I smirked and turned his way.

"What... Just happened? How... Who..." He was left speechless for the second time this morning.

"You're welcome." I smiled.

He grinned. "I could kiss you right now." He looked like he actually might.

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Please don't."

He laughed. "Alright. But, why?"

I thought about it. Why did I pay for his bill? Because I felt bad for him? No, that's not it. Because I like him? Definitely not. Then I figured it out.

"Because it was the right thing to do." I responded. "Don't worry about paying me back, five thousand is nothing. Go have fun with your gang, I'll see you around."

He turned to leave, grinning. "You're one heck of a girl. Have fun at the mall!" He ran out the door to meet up with a group of Mobians waiting outside.

The secretary handed me an electronic pad for me to sign for my purchase. I scribbled 'Silver' on the line. For once, I was glad my signature was completely illegible. After a second, the machine beeped, saying that the signature matched. The secretary smiled at me warmly.

"Have a nice day miss Mercury." She waved as I turned to leave.

Amy, Sonic, and Shadow followed me out the door. "What was that all about?" Sonic asked.

"Five thousand is nothing? Since when?" Amy demanded.

"You payed for Scourge's bill, even after he was rude?" Shadow inquired, perplexed.

"Just how much money have you got?" Sonic questioned me.

I was overwhelmed. "Whoa, guys, one at a time."

"Why did you pay for his bill?" Shadow asked, stepping in front of me.

I rolled my eyes and walked around him. "Like I said, because it was the right thing to do. A friend was in need, so I helped him out. No biggie."

"No biggie? Five thousand rings is pretty big." Sonic stared at me incredulously.

I smirked. "Not for me. Which car are we taking?" I looked around at the parking lot, not seeing Amy's car.

"My car." Shadow walked up to a red Camaro and unlocked it with his car keys. The hood was down, and the licence plate read 'ALL HAIL'. Wow, ego much?

"Nice car." I walked to the seat diagonal from the driver's spot.

"You've gotta be pretty rich if five thousand rings is not a problem for you, if you don't mind, how much do your parents make?" Sonic hopped into the passenger side of Shadow's car.

I froze. "My parents?" I asked.

"Well yeah, how else have you got all this money? You get an allowance or something? Are you like, some big millionaire's kid?" He continued, buckling up.

I sighed heavily and sat down. "I don't know who my parents are."

Amy and Sonic spoke at the same time. "What? How come?!"

I shrugged. "Never met my dad. My mom left before I turned twelve. She never talked about him. I don't know their names." Technically, that was all true.

There was a pause as I got buckled. When I looked up all three of them were staring at me. "_What_?" I asked, they were making me feel really awkward.

"So how have you got so much cash?" Sonic asked quickly.

"Sonic!" Amy smacked Sonic on the back of his head. "I'm sorry, Mercury."

"No, its okay. I make money off of my art. And like I told Amy yesterday, I don't go into town very often, so I don't spend my money that much. It builds up quickly. I've got over a million rings in the bank."

"That's crazy, you're like, a child millionaire. Do you miss your parents?" Sonic seemed pretty excited. Shadow shook his head and started driving the car out of the parking lot.

I shook my head too. "How can you miss something you never had?"

"But what about your mom? Do you miss her?" Sonic was pretty interested in me now, he was turned around in his seat so he could see me. Amy looked like she was about to slap Sonic again.

I smiled so Amy knew it was okay. "She wasn't much of a mom, she was gone all the time, she just didn't come back one day."

Shadow spoke up. "And you're okay with that? You don't want to find her?"

"No, why would I? She never even told me her name. Hey, I've got an idea."

"What is it?" Amy looked relieved to leave the topic.

"How about we play that five things game that we played yesterday? We have a while before we reach the mall, you can each ask me five things, and this time, I want to ask each of you five things too."

"Sure! I like this idea!" Amy started jumping up and down in her seat.

Sonic laughed. "I'm cool with this. I've got nothing to hide."

"Sure, why not." Shadow agreed. "But I go last."

"Okay, so who goes first?" I asked.

Sonic grinned. "I'll go first! You wanna ask me, or can I ask you first?"

"You can go first." I sat back in my chair. "But maybe you should ask Amy what she asked me first, so you don't ask the same things."

Amy stopped bouncing and thought about what she'd asked. "Right, I asked her what she was wearing, then I asked her why she was wearing a towel, and why she had Eggman's jacket."

Sonic interrupted. "Oh, so that's where his coat was, I was wondering why he didn't have it yesterday."

Amy glared at him and he shut up. "I also found out she has Psychokinesis powers, doesn't own a cell phone, and she's fourteen."

"Wait, psychokinesis, like Silver? That's cool, I always thought that was a neat power. Silver will be psyched to meet somebody with the same powers as him. He's coming, right?"

Amy sighed. "No, apparently he's dealing with some issues. He said he can't come, I wish he _was_ coming though, he's always so much fun."

"Yeah, bummer." To my surprise, Sonic actually looked a bit disappointed. "So Mercury, what kind of art do you make?"

I smiled, this was an easy one. "Oils mostly, I do impressionistic paintings. They all generally have something to do with action."

"That's cool, ummm..." Sonic rubbed the back of his neck, thinking. "Got it, how did you beat Eggman's robot yesterday? Amy told me you fought him, and that's how you messed up your leg."

"It was chasing me, so I dived under it and threw a psychic knife at the joint between the leg and the body. It blew up, then landed on top of my leg." I smiled. "I'm not the luckiest person, as you can tell"

"Wait, a psychic knife? What's that?" He looked like he'd never heard of it before. Even Shadow seemed interested.

Have I never used a psychic knife in front of them? Huh, how about that. I grinned. "It's this." I focused my powers into the palm of my hand like I'd done yesterday. In no time, I had a spear of glowing blue psychic energy in my hand. I held it up for them to see. "It's not that easy to make, but they're wicked powerful." I threw it straight up into the sky and it burst high above our heads.

Sonic looked impressed. "That's awesome! I wonder if Silver knows how to make those. They look like chaos spears. How bad did it hurt when the robot fell on your foot?"

I shook my head at his enthusiasm. "I yelled pretty loud, I'm surprised nobody heard me, but I guess my house _is _pretty far away from everybody else. It hurt like nothing I'd ever felt before, you should have seen what my foot looked like. But it's fine now, so no worries."

"Cool, alright, last thing. Can I borrow Eggman's jacket? I've always kind of wanted to take it from him, just so I can wear it in front of him and tease him about it. It'll make him so mad, its gonna be hilarious."

I rolled my eyes. "Sure, I guess you can borrow it, but I want it back. It doesn't belong to me, and I should give it back to him, even if he did crush my foot." I handed him the heavy red coat and he took it happily.

"You're really going to give it back? That's crazy, you should keep it because he made you go to a hospital." He stuck his tongue out and made a face. "I hate hospitals, especially if I'm the one stuck inside one."

"Of course I'm giving it back, its not mine!" I exclaimed, surprised that anyone would want to keep something that doesn't belong to them. That's stealing, and stealing is wrong no matter who you steal it from.

"Okay, okay. Fair enough. But didn't he give it to you?" He was messing with the jacket.

"Hey, you already asked me five things, its my turn now."

"Right, sorry. Go ahead."

I thought about it for a second. "Okay, what's up between you and Scourge?"

Sonic looked caught off guard. "Wow, nice first question. That's kind of a long story, so I'll give you the short version. Basically, he's me from an alternate dimension, except he's evil. His dimension was destroyed, so he and the other alternate dimensional versions of my friends came to this dimension to escape theirs. I managed to keep him from trying to destroy this Mobius too, but he's still bad news. I'm not sure what he did, but when he found out about me, he changed himself. He changed his fur and eye colours, and changed his name to Scourge. Whatever he did also made him super powerful, and he's not somebody you want to mess with. He only doesn't try to take over this dimension out of respect for me letting him live here rather than letting him be destroyed along with his Mobius. If you want my advice, stay away from him. It will only end badly."

I nodded. "Ah, I think I understand now. That's interesting." I thought about my next question. "Why does Shadow call you faker?"

Sonic smiled. "Again, good question. I think that's probably a better one for Shadow, but I'll try to explain. Me and Shadow somewhat resemble each other, and when I first met Shadow, a lot of my friends mistook him for me, so when we finally ran into each other, we were fed up with being mistaken for each other, and had a big fight. I called him a cheap copy, and he got really mad, considering he was created fifty years before I was born. So he said:" Sonic made his voice deeper and made his fingers into quotation marks to show he was quoting Shadow. "'I'm a copy? I think you're the faker here, you're not even good enough to be my fake!' And since then, the nickname 'faker' has stuck with me. I guess its just more of a tease now than anything. We don't really look that much alike, at least, nobody mistakes us for each other anymore."

"Wow, that's cool. Okay, here's a good question. Of all the people you've fought, who are you the most afraid of?" I leaned forward, this is something I've always wanted to hear.

"Wait, including people that are now my friends, or not including them?"

"Umm, not including." I didn't want him to get away with saying Shadow or something.

"Well, probably Mephiles, he's the only bad guy who's ever actually succeeded in killing me. Don't ask. Its a long story."

I smiled. I didn't really want to ask anyways, I already knew the story. "Okay, I won't. How about your friends, who do you think is the most dangerous?"

"That's a hard one, probably Shadow or Silver. Shadow is more likely to attack me, but even though Silver is too nice to hurt anybody, he's come closer to beating me than Shadow has."

I nodded. "Okay, this is my last one, what do you think of me?"

"Dang, you couldn't give me an easy one? Okay, well, first of all, you are really good at coming up with questions. You're crazy nice, even to people who personally, I don't think deserve it. I feel really bad for you, because you never had a proper family. You're incredibly tough, if you can walk away from a fight with a mecha with a broken leg and walk for half an hour before being _forced_ to take a ride to the hospital. And the fact that you still want to give Eggman his jacket back after all that is just crazy. You're also... Um, super pretty. You could be like, a model or something. And I think you have a great personality, so I've got no complaints about you so far. I'm already looking forward to hanging out with you again."

I felt my face heat up as I blushed like mad. Wow, so many good things. I had no idea he thought I was that cool. "Uh, thanks. Wow." I had to admit that I was kinda speechless.

"My turn!" Amy grinned.

"Alright, go ahead." I tried to stop blushing.

"Okay, first of all, is this the first time you've worn a dress?"

I was surprised, I guess I was expecting something harder. "Er, yeah. I usually wear more practical things. Looking pretty isn't that big on my to do list when I keep to myself and paint all the time."

She laughed. "Okay, I guess that's fair. What do you think of Scourge? Do you like him? 'Cause he definitely likes you."

I was more than a little surprised. "Wh-what? N-no, I don't- I don't think that way about... I only met him last night, we're just friends. He gets on my nerves a little, but yeah, I think he's okay. But just as a friend. Honestly, what kind of a question is that?"

Sonic laughed kind of awkwardly. "Yeah, Ames. Geez, nosy much?"

"Hey, it's a legitimate question!" Amy defended herself. "Anyways, would you date him if he asked you out?"

I'm really not sure how I should react. How would a girl who just wants to be friends react? "Not right now, maybe if I get to know him better." _And get used to being a girl. And decide to date guys. If I ever date at all. So probably no. Not ever. _I sighed inwardly, _I can't ever date anybody normally, ever again. Unless I go lesbian, but that would be so weird to the others. Anyways, I don't think I should let anybody get too close, they might find out..._

Amy tapped my shoulder and I jerked out of my thoughts. "Mercury? You okay? You kind of spaced out there for a second."

I hadn't even realised that she was talking, I better pay better attention. "Huh? Sorry, I was just... It's nothing. What did you say?"

"Okay then, I was just telling you that that's a smart decision, you shouldn't date anybody you don't know very well. So, what kind of guy _would_ you date? Like, who would be your perfect man?" Then her face flashed an expression like she had an idea. "Or woman, if that's your kind of thing..." She awkwardly drifted off.

My eyes widened. "Uhh, I actually never really thought about it. Guy. If I were to date, it would be a guy." Amy smiled, she looked kind of relieved. "But I don't think I'd date anybody."

Amy rolled her eyes. "_Hypothetically._ If you were to date some guy, what would he be like, ideally."

I really had no idea of what to describe, so I went with someone like Blaze. "Well, he'd be about average height. Not too much taller than me. He'd have to look and act cool, but not be one of those guys who's always in your face bragging about how cool he is. He would definitely have to be patient, 'cause I know that I'm pretty oblivious most of the time, and I guess you could say I'm naïve."

Amy interrupted. "So we can cross Sonic off the list." She grinned at the blue hedgehog, who stuck his tongue out at her in reply.

"Hey, I can be patient if I want." He argued.

Shadow smirked at him. "Which is never."

Sonic sighed and I smiled. "Okay then, moving on. I guess he'd be the quiet, mysterious type too. He'd have to be there when I need him. And I'd have to be able to make him laugh. That's really important. I like to make people laugh, even though I'm not that good at telling jokes."

Amy clapped her hands together. "All right, last question. How about you tell us a couple of jokes? Try to make us laugh. But don't be offended if Shadow doesn't laugh, he doesn't really laugh, like, ever."

"Okay... Don't worry, I don't really expect to make anybody laugh, like I said, I'm not that funny. But, challenge accepted. Do you mind giving me a hint about what kind of jokes you like? I'll tell one for each of you. And you can laugh at how pathetic I am."

Sonic thought about it. "I just like traditional jokes, like statement and punch line jokes, or maybe knock knock jokes, but only if they're not overused ones."

Amy clapped her hands and grinned. "I like those dumb blonde jokes, they're always hilarious, even if they're kinda mean."

I nodded. "And you Shadow?"

He smirked at me in the rear view mirror. "Dirty jokes."

I sighed. "I don't know a whole lot of those, but I'll try. Okay Sonic, got one."

"Alright, lay it on me." He leaned back in his seat.

"So a man walks into a bar." I paused for dramatic effect.

"Yeah?" Sonic turned around to find me smiling.

"And he said ouch." I always loved that joke.

Sonic looked confused. "Huh?" Then he grinned. "Ha, I get it. Nice one."

Amy laughed. "Ha! Me too, good delivery. My turn!"

Shadow remained silent. I smiled and thought of a joke for Amy. "Okay, so a dumb blonde and a brunette fall off a building, which one hits the ground first?"

Amy thought about it. "Uhh, did they fall off of different stories?"

"Nope, they both jumped off the top at the same time." I responded.

"Okay, which one?"

I couldn't help smiling. "The brunette, the blonde had to stop and ask for directions."

Amy and Sonic both burst out laughing, even Shadow smirked a little. Apparently I did good with that one. I grinned and attempted to think of a joke for Shadow while the other two tried to stop laughing.

I though of one. "Okay, I don't know a lot of these, so tell me if you've heard it before. How many Emos does it take to screw in a lightbulb?"

Shadow breathed out heavily. "I've heard that one. None, they all sit in the dark and cry. You have to do better than that."

Sonic snickered. "What? Are you offended mister emo?"

Shad took his eyes off the road to glare at the blue hedgehog. "I'm not Emo, so if you know whats good for your personal health, knock it off."

Sonic rolled his eyes at him. "Yeah, and that totally didn't sound Emo at all."

Shadow growled. "Faker... Don't make me pull over."

I got a little worried. "Hey, lets not get angry, okay? I have another one. It's not that great, but maybe you haven't heard it."

Amy agreed. "Yeah, go ahead and tell us!" Shadow looked back to the road and Sonic leaned back in his seat again.

I didn't like this one much, but its one of the only ones I actually know. "Okay Shadow, what do women have in common with a road?"

I could see his expression in the rear-view mirror. He was thinking really hard. "I don't know, what?"

I frowned. I really don't approve of this kind of joke, I don't find them funny at all. "Manholes."

There was an immediate reaction from everyone in the car. Shadow smirked and laughed quietly while the blue hedgehog next to him burst into a fit of poorly-suppressed giggles. Amy gasped and looked pretty disgusted, which is probably how I looked as well.

When the boys stopped laughing, Shadow congratulated me. "Well done. I haven't heard that one before, it's very clever. Where did you hear it?"

"Yeah good job. You made Shadow laugh, that's something I don't see very often." Sonic was still trying not to laugh.

I half smiled. "I saw it online once. I forgot which site. You really think it was good?"

Amy 'hmmmed'. "I didn't think much of the joke itself, but you told it very well. No pauses or stuttering, that's pretty good."

"Thanks. Okay, my turn to ask you questions." I began thinking of five questions to ask. I actually know a lot about Amy already from previous times we've hung out, So I have to think of new questions that somebody who doesn't know much about her would think of.

Amy rubbed her hands together. "Alright, ask away."

I thought of an easy one for her, since she's my friend. "Okay, what would _your_ perfect guy be like?"

She grinned. "That's easy, he'd be just like Sonic! But maybe a little more mature, and he wouldn't run away so much."

I figured I should say something. "But I don't know much about what Sonic is like, so that's not really an answer."

She blushed in embarrassment. "Oh, right. Well, Sonic is brave, handsome, strong, not too tall, his eyes are amazing, he always knows what to do, and he always manages to be there when you really need him. Am I missing anything, Sonic?"

Sonic's cheeks were bright red and he was trying to hide it. He gulped. "Uh, yeah, just that I'm stupid, clueless, and the most impatient person you ever met."

Shadow started snickering. "It's true."

Amy pouted. "Aw, c'mon Sonic, you're not stupid! Don't say that!"

Shadow laughed a little louder. "But he is impatient and clueless."

Amy flicked Shadow in the temple. "Knock it off, nobody asked you."

Shadow rolled his eyes, but shut up and focused on the road again.

I cleared my throat. "Okay... So you like the heroic type? Even with his flaws?"

Amy grinned. "Yup! I love Sonic just the way he is! Next question please!"

I've always wondered this. "Alright, since you obviously like Sonic a lot, are there any other people you would date if he wasn't an option?"

Amy bit her lip. "Wow, ummm, if Sonic wasn't an option... I guess somebody kinda like him. Knuckles is pretty heroic, but he's kind of a jerk sometimes, so a maybe for him. Shadow is too grumpy, and he's a total jerk most of the time, so definitely not him."

"Hey! I'm right here." Our ebony driver pointed out. "Are you asking to be kicked out of the car?"

Sonic snickered and turned around to grin at me. "Can't you just see the amazing friendships we've gained after all this time?" His voice was dripping with sarcasm. **(SonicSong182 on YouTube reference! Yay!)**

Amy grinned like a Cheshire Cat. "Oh, Shadow. You know I don't mean that in a bad way, we all love and accept you the way you are. Now shut up so I can finish answering."

I couldn't help it, I burst into a fit of giggles. Just the idea of Amy telling Shadow to shut up, and in that motherly sort of tone also, was just too ridiculous for me to stand. I was soon joined by Sonic and Amy as well, while Shadow just sighed unhappily. I have the most ridiculous laugh too, and it was just enhanced by my higher pitch as well, and soon I was laughing at my own giggles. I glimpsed Shadow's expression in the mirror when I managed to open my eyes long enough. He had his head half turned away from Sonic, and he was trying to hide it, but his eyes told the whole story. I'm generally pretty good at figuring out how the people around me feel, and I'd spent enough time reading Shadow in particular's emotions to know what I was seeing. That expression on his usually impassive face made me immediately shut up and feel like an awful person. I'd never actually seen Shadow look hurt, but there was no doubt about it in his face, he felt like a victim here, and he looked a little embarrassed too. I wondered if he secretly liked Amy, and that's why her harsh words hit him so hard. I suddenly felt really bad for him, Sonic and Amy must tease him like this all the time, he hangs out with them a lot, he probably can't get away from them as easily as I could. Amy and Sonic noticed that I had stopped giggling, and they both fell silent too. Shadow looked up again, he looked relieved for a second before his face became impassive again.

I really had to apologise, laughing was totally rude of me. "I'm sorry Shadow, I shouldn't have laughed. I don't know what came over me."

Shadow looked a little shocked, but then he smirked. "It's fine, everybody loses it every now and then. Sonic would have laughed anyways, even if you hadn't. By the way, nice laugh. I've never met a girl who snorts before." He slyly glanced at me in the rear view mirror, a half smile playing on his lips.

The blood rose in my cheeks, I hated it when I snorted, and I hated it even more when people pointed it out. "Hey, I can't help it if I snort, you got a problem with it?"

Sonic raised his hands in a time-out position. "Whoa, chill. Hey, Shadow, to be honest, I was actually laughing at her laugh, its better than Silver's! Maybe even funnier than Omega's!"

Amy grinned too and looked at me. "Sorry honey, but I was too. I'm not sure if you beat Omega, but your laugh is hilarious!"

My cheeks reddened deeper. I blush an awful lot more now that I'm a girl, I wonder why that is? "Just finish answering already..." I mumbled.

Amy grinned. "Right! So like I said, Shadows's a complete grumpy-puss, so probably a no for him." Shadow growled and she just grinned wider. She teased him in a sing-song voice. "You know you're just proving my point..." Shadow sighed and shook his head, knowing he wasn't going to win this one. She continued on. "I don't think I'd ever date Tails. For one, he's too young, and he's more like a little brother than anything anyways. No way for Charmy, again, WAY too young. And immature. Umm, I guess Espio is cool. He's a great listener, and he's always so cool and calm. But he hardly ever talks, and I think I'd lose my mind if I had to hang out with Charmy and Vector all day. So another maybe for Espio. Vector is too loud and crazy for me, so he's a no. Plus He and Vanilla were so meant for each other! Big is a definite no. He's older than me, but he acts like a child, so he feels like a younger brother too. And that just leaves Silver... He's really nice, and he's brave like Sonic. He's also a good listener, and he's pretty mature for someone a year younger than me. Though his choices in hair style are... Um, unusual."

Shadow barked out a laugh. "_That's_ an understatement!" He and Sonic laughed a little until Amy glared them down. I ignored them and waited for Amy's answer.

She cleared her throat and continued. "Well, he's also very patient, and he's pretty funny. Yes, I'd date Silver. But only if Sonic isn't a choice."

Shadow shook his head. "So you would seriously date finhead over me?"

Amy stuck her tongue out at him. "Last time I checked, it wasn't your turn to ask questions, Shadow. It's Mercury's. But yes, I would. He's a whole lot nicer than you are, and he's taller too." She grinned, knowing she had just hit a sensitive topic for him.

Shadow growled. "What does it matter if he's taller? I'm the Ultimate Life Form! Do you think I care?!"

Amy grinned like a Cheshire Cat again. "You sound like you do. Why do you care if I like Silver more than you anyways? I thought you didn't like anybody."

"I _don't_ like anybody. I just thought you had better taste is all." He clenched his fists on the steering wheel.

"This is only if Sonic wasn't a choice! Which he is! So get over yourself, and knock it off!" Amy was getting pretty frustrated.

Sonic tried to break the tension. "Well, at least I know who I have to keep an eye on."

Amy immediately gave him her full attention. "Oh, you don't have to worry, silly! There's no competition against you!"

I cleared my throat. This was getting a bit awkward. "Okay, question number three."

Amy gave me a thumbs-up. "Lay it on me!"

I smiled. "Okay, which bad guy do you dislike the most?" I kinda guessed the answer to this already.

"Mephiles for sure! He's the worst!" Yeah, I was right. "Actually, maybe its a tie between him and Scourge. Both of those guys are just pure evil!"

My turn. "Alright, follow up question. What makes Scourge so evil?"

Amy shifted in her seat. "He tricked me into thinking he was Sonic once, and he used me to try to beat Sonic. It was awful, I'm just glad that Sonic is so good at being a hero. Scourge is really bad. I was held hostage for a long time." She said it all kind of calmly, and I got the message that she didn't really wanna talk about it anymore than that. "Uh, last question please."

I nodded. "Last one already? Okay... I'll give you a fun one. If you could choose one person that you know, and tell them what to do, and how to dress, and all that for a whole day, who would it be and what would you do with them?"

Shadow cut in before she had a chance to answer. "Pffft. That's easy. She'd take Sonic on a romantic date the whole day."

Amy's cheeks flushed pink. "I would not! I like to earn things like that, thank you very much. Maybe I'd rather make you clean my house the whole day, and make you give me a spa treatment!"

Sonic snickered. Shadow joined him. "Yeah, in your dreams, Rose." He retorted.

Amy clenched her fists and her face went red. I rolled my eyes, it looked like I was gonna have to intervene. "Can you guys stop tormenting Amy long enough for her to answer so we can move on? Please?"

Sonic and Shadow stopped snickering. Shadow sighed. "Fine, go ahead and answer the question Amy, I won't interrupt this time. Promise."

Amy rolled her eyes. "_Thank you_. Now, I guess I'd choose someone I don't do much with. Maybe I'd force Big to come and do something other than chase his frog? Actually... Wait, I know! I'd take Silver out around town, and force him to come and make some friends. He's always so alone by himself, and he hardly ever hangs out with us. He really needs some more friends, so that he's got someone else to hang out with besides us. And I'd definitely make him meet you, you guys would be great friends, I can tell!" She smiled slyly. "Maybe even _more_ than just friends. From what you've said, he fills most of your ideal guy requirements."

I looked away, trying not to let her see my face. I felt so guilty. What am I even doing here? I should have stayed away from this group at all costs. What happens when they find out that Silver isn't going to ever meet Mercury? What happens if they find out what really happened? What do I tell them then? How would I explain myself? what would they do? what would _Shadow_ do? What would Blaze do in this situation? I shook myself out of it so I could answer her. "That's nice. That you would spend your day helping someone else out, I mean. It's incredibly thoughtful of you. Well, It's Shadow's turn now, isn't it?"

Our driver nodded. "You ask first."

I scrunched up my eyebrows, thinking of something interesting to ask him. Shadow wasn't going to get any easy questions. "Okay... Describe all your friends in three words or less."

Shadow smirked. "Friends? Like who? According to Rose, I don't like anybody."

I sighed, annoyed. "Fine, be that way. Describe all the people invited to the mall today in three words or less, including yourself."

Shadow nodded. "I'll start with the people who aren't here. So, Rouge; very talkative thief. Omega; pretty tough robot. Knuckles; extremely gullible idiot. Tails; know it all. Big; chases a frog. Cream; really nice kid. Vanilla; makes good food. Vector; a clueless detective. Espio; doesn't annoy me. Charmy; annoys me... greatly. Silver... Tough but naïve." He smirked. "Now for you guys. Sonic; has no patience. Amy; Faker's stalker girlfriend. Mercury; one clever chick. And I'm The Ultimate Lifeform. There. Done. Next question."

Amy protested at her description, but everyone kind of ignored her, and I didn't want to get into another argument.

I had to smile a little, those were some really clever answers. "Okay, nice. Ummmm, which one of those people, besides yourself, annoys you the least?"

Shadow focused on the road for a second because he had to turn. "Well, maybe you, because you haven't done anything to really annoy me yet. But then again, I hardly know you, and I'm guessing that you meant besides yourself as well. So... I'm tempted to say Cream, because she's always nice, but once she starts talking, she won't stop. And that annoys me." He thought really hard again. "I can't say Rouge. Or Sonic. Or Amy. I definitely can't say Knuckles or the Chaotix. Omega doesn't annoy me very much, so I'll go with him. Even though he likes to rant about milk shakes."

I nodded. "Okay... Who of all the people invited do you dislike the most?"

Shadow grimaced. "Charmy. I literally can't stand that kid. He annoys the shit out of me. End of discussion."

Well, at least I know that I'm not the person he hates the most, I feel bad for the Charmy kid. If Shadow's as mean as he is to me, and I'm not even his least favourite person, Charmy must have it pretty rough from Shadow. "Okay... What are your top three favourite things to do when you have extra time?"

Shadow smirked in the mirror. "Ride my badass motorcycle, and hang out in the city. And... I don't know, go on GUN missions? Or maybe chill in the ARK and fix it up. Yeah, one of those two."

I shook my head. "You have to choose one of them. I said three things, not four."

Shadow rolled his eyes. "Fine, if you want to be picky. I guess fixing up the ARK is better, because I don't ever have to deal with Rouge. But GUN missions are pretty enjoyable when it's just me, or me and Omega."

I nodded. "Alright... Fourth question? Wow, that was fast. Okay, you made it sound like you had something against that Silver guy. What's up between you and him?" Was I finally going to get an answer? Why doesn't he like me? I stared at the back of his head, really interested in how he would respond. Amy and Sonic also leaned forward to pay better attention.

Shadow took a hand off the steering wheel to scratch his neck. "Well... That's a bit complicated. I don't hate Silver. Not really. It's more like... I like to mess with him. He's easy to tease, and he takes it pretty well. I guess that sounds really mean, but I'm pretty sure he gets that I'm joking. I mean, he never acts like he's angry with me or anything. I guess I feel like an older brother or something, and I pick on him. And he picks on me too. I guess I don't really have any problems with Silver, and anything I say is really only teasing. He does get on my nerves every now and then though."

I wanted to shout 'bullshit' in his face. He says he doesn't have a problem with me? _Then explain why you beat me up and torment me endlessly every single time you see me?! Explain that, you good-for-nothing jerk!_

I managed to keep my face expressionless. "Okay... Last question." I must have sounded a bit miffed though, because Amy looked at me funny. I continued anyways. "What would _you_ do for a Klondike bar?" I didn't really have anything better to ask.

Shadow snickered a little. "Well, I _do_ love ice cream. Anything, I guess. I'd climb the tallest building in Mobius without any ropes. I'd go dressed up as Sonic on a date with Amy. I'd steal the master emerald and then tell Knuckles that Rouge took it. Or maybe tell him that I took it and run. I'd kill, or kiss, Sonic. Or Silver. Or any of those guys. I'd hold my breath for five minutes. I'd stay awake for a month straight. and... I'd go to the store and buy a Klondike bar." At the last one, he smiled genuinely. "Actually, I think I'll just go with the last one. It makes the most sense."

Even though that was kind of funny, I was still pretty pissed off. "Nice. Your turn to ask." Sonic noticed my tone too this time, as did Shadow. Amy was still trying to read my face, but I wasn't giving her anything to see. The boys both turned to look at me. Shadow was stopped at a red light.

The ebony hedgehog gave me a confused look. "What has you so ticked off?"

I gave him a forced smile. "Is that your first question?"

He rolled his eyes. "Fine. Yes it is. Now spill."

I racked my brain for something to say, but I drew a blank. I couldn't say it was nothing, they knew something was up. "Can you ask something else? I don't want to talk about it. It's... Personal." Hopefully he'll just drop it.

Shadow smirked at me. "Only if I can have an extra question."

I sighed heavily. "Fine... Six questions then. Now go ahead and ask me already."

Shadow nodded. "Deal. Of all the people you've heard about from us today, who do you think you'll dislike the most?"

I rolled my eyes. "I haven't met any of them, so I can't make a judgement on them yet. Anyways, I don't dislike people. I choose not to judge people."

"Fair enough. Okay. You _have _to have met people besides us. No one can be completely isolated for this long. Who have you met before us? It doesn't matter if we don't know them."

I began to shake my head, and deny that I knew anybody, but then I remembered one person. "Uh, besides the people that I know from the Internet, just one. Her name is Sofia, I don't know her that well, but she's pretty nice. She's a grey cat and she's a few years older than me. I think she's seventeen."

Shadow nodded. "I think I may actually know her... Yeah, I met her yesterday at the grocery store in town. Silver knows her too, apparently. She seemed nice enough. Okay, next question."

I didn't think he'd actually remember her, I sure hope he doesn't want to go and follow up on me knowing her. "Alright, go ahead."

"So when and where were you born? Here, or somewhere else? In a hospital, or a house? Do you know your birthday?" He kept his focus on the road.

I shrugged. "No idea. I never asked my mom. And we never celebrated my birthday. Sorry, I don't know." Well, I _didn't_ ever get the chance to ask her...

"Geez. Okay. What do you think when I tell you that I don't even _have_ a birthday, because I'm a creation of science, and I wasn't born like all of you."

I shrugged again. "Dude, I can lift stuff with my mind. Nothing fazes me. I guess I think that's pretty interesting, and I wonder why you're hanging out with friends and stuff if you were created. I mean, if they went to the trouble to create life, then why aren't you in some lab somewhere?"

Shadow smirked. "Good question, but its not your turn. Alright, last question." Shadow finally pulled into the parking lot in front of the mall. Across the gap, another car pulled into a space, with a young rabbit sitting next to Tails in the back. In the front of the car was a large alligator and an older rabbit. We parked and immediately the other people hopped out of their car to greet us. Amy and Sonic also jumped out to meet their friends. Shadow turned around to smirk at me. "I think I'll save my last question for later. Let's go meet the others first."

Shadow turned the key in the car to turn off the engine and got out of his seat. I didn't know what to say, so I shrugged, kind of glad I didn't have to answer another question right away. "Fine with me." I told him as I unbuckled. I reached for the handle of my door, but my hand was met with air. I looked up to see that Shadow was holding the door open for me. I was surprised, but accepted the gesture and got out. "Uh, thanks." I smiled at him so I didn't seem rude.

He half-smiled back. "My pleasure. Now come on." He began walking towards the other mobians.

I bit my lip to hide my grin. If Shadow is going to open doors for me, then being a girl _does_ have its advantages. I grabbed my crutches out of the car and closed the door behind me. Maybe today wouldn't be so bad after all.

* * *

_Mephiles the Dark POV (goes WAY back to the beginning of this chapter.)_

I returned to the room at dawn to find Silver was already up. The hedgehog was rubbing her eyes tiredly. _I should strike now. Get it over with, and have ultimate power. She is awake, and off guard. There is no better time than now._ That was what my brain was telling me. It was screaming this in my head, but my arm would not obey. No matter how much I tried to convince myself that I should do it now, I could not do it. I mentally screamed at myself '_just do it! Do it now, you wimp! What is wrong with you?! Shoot her! It only takes one blast, then it's all over! What are you waiting for?!_'I didn't know how to answer myself. Why _didn't_ I just kill Silver? Why would my arm refuse to blast the damn hedgehog and end it all for those god-forsaken heroes? I have waited all this time, I can't pull out now. I am so close!

I fought with myself again, at one point just trying to get my arm to point at her. But I couldn't do it. I felt like there was a physical weight pulling down my arm, refusing to allow me to lift it. And the worst thing was, no matter how many times I mentally yelled at myself, a small, quiet voice in the back of my head would always respond back with something that I couldn't argue. Something that I couldn't deny. The voice told me why I would never be able to bring myself to lay a finger on this girl. It kept repeating one thing in my head. '_You can't do it. You don't _want_ to._'

The scariest thing was, the voice was right. I had planned this for so long. I had hid in shadows, watched my prey, and gathered power. Yet I had done all of that convinced that the person I was killing was an annoying, ugly, rather worthless boy that wouldn't even be noticed if he was extinguished. I had no qualms about destroying Silver. So where was my sudden inability to make the final blow coming from? Why was it that I suddenly _couldn't_ imagine hurting the hedgehog?

Deep inside me, I knew. I didn't want to admit it, but I knew. When Silver had been a male, it had been different. He was disliked, sad, and alone. He even wished for death at some times. He lacked confidence, and he chose to be alone at any and every chance. The Silver I had chosen to destroy was unwanted. There would have been absolutely no personal consequence to taking him out.

But now... This girl... Everyone she met had immediately liked her. When she smiled, everyone around immediately felt happier, myself included. When she spoke, people listened. And she was completely oblivious to the impact she had on them. Scourge was already on his way to speak with her again. I could feel his excitement from this room. Why didn't I want to destroy this girl? Because I liked her. I liked the way she looked, the way she talked, the way she smiled, the way she made me feel, without even seeing me. Just being in the same room as this child made my black soul feel lighter, like there was still hope, somewhere. She was addictive to me. For the first time since I could remember, I felt... Content. Just to stand and watch. Just being in the presence of someone so pure, unlike myself, and so beautiful, just made me... Happy. And I liked it.

Suddenly, Silver shot upright in her bed. I jumped back into the shadows, hoping not to be noticed. Then I realised that there were people behind the door to the room. Three of them. I slunk further back into the shadows, waiting to see who it was. Silver grimaced for a second, she must have recognised one of them, and didn't like it. Then her face split into a beautiful grin, and she jumped out of bed and ran to the door to open it. I felt the sudden urge to help her, but I stayed where I was, knowing what reaction she would have if she saw me. I cringed, and had to force myself to look away as she knocked the door into her own foot and fell forward. Her yell was cut off. I looked up to see why. A dark silhouette had caught her as she fell. I couldn't quite make out who it was because the light was behind him. He straightened up and pulled her up with him, using her shoulders to stand her up. Now that they were standing, I could clearly see who it was in the doorway. It was my look-alike. My rival whom I shared a form with. I nearly growled out loud on sight of him. Shadow the Hedgehog, the ultimate pain in my ass. The hedgehog that sealed me inside the sceptre of darkness in the first place, then beat me again along with Sonic and Silver. I had a sudden desire to go and attack my duplicate, partly because he irked me, and partly because I wanted him away from Silver.

Thankfully, he let go of the white hedgehog and backed off. I knew I couldn't fight him anyways, I wasn't even close to strong enough. I saw the other hedgehogs in the corridor and I knew I had missed my chance. I slunk back deeper into the shadows and melted away. I slid invisibly to the shadow of Silver's crutches. There I would wait, and watch, for the day. None would be the wiser.

* * *

**Author's note: Okay, I hope that didn't take too long. This chapter was actually mostly written already when I put the first one up though, because I had written a lot, and I had to just cut it off somewhere to make chapter 1. So, just don't expect every chapter up this quickly. This was also a pretty long chapter, and the others might not end up this long, but I'll try to keep them all at this quality, okay? So please be patient with me, and I'll work on keeping this updated as quickly as possible. In the meantime, go ahead and check out my deviantart account: **** I have plenty of good stuff for you to look at. **

**And if you comment (please do!), please leave me a way to thank you, because I really appreciate your comments, and I truly do want you to realise that I appreciate it. As for now, here are my responses to your reviews:**

**To the two anonymous guests: Thank you for reading! And I hope you liked this update, I worked pretty hard on it for everyone reading!**

**To Night of Starclan: I know I already thanked you, but thanks again! And thank you so much for using an account so I **_**could**_** thank you. And I hope you liked this chapter!**

**To jtycoon: Thank you for reading, and for the complements. I hope I fixed the ages accurately in this chapter, and I explained my mistake in the beginning Author's note. Hahaha, as you can see now, not quite Sonic and Shadow... But close XD yeah, Silver's life is gonna get PRETTY interesting. Also, I've never heard of the expression; 'keep on trucking', would you mind explaining it to me? *peace sign back* *brohug/brofist***


	3. Chapter 3- Crushing

**AN: I know, FINALLY. AN UPDATE. OH MY GOSH. NO WAY. Well, here it **_**finally**_** is.**

**I hope you guys don't mind, but I'll be using actual stores. Oh, and I'm using American stores. And I don't own any of them. If I did, I would be counting my money rather than writing a fanfiction. Not that I don't love writing fanfics. I do. If I could make a living out of it, I would. I would just write all day until I'm too tired to keep my eyes open. I enjoy it that much ^.^**

* * *

Chapter 3: Crushing

_Silver's POV_

I was the last to arrive at the group. Sonic, Tails, Amy, and the small rabbit that I'm pretty sure is named Cream were already talking about something. The crocodile had his arm around the older rabbit. I stood on the opposite side of the group from where Shadow was, and I ended up next to Sonic. They were still talking, and I kind of hid behind the blue hedgehog so I didn't have to talk. Tails wasn't one of my favourite people either, and I was happy to avoid talking to anybody for as long as possible. The crocodile and older rabbit joined in the conversation as well. They were talking about their trips here. Shadow and I seemed to be the only ones _not_ talking. I leaned on my left crutch and decided to start listening to what they were actually saying.

"So how was your drive, darling?" The older rabbit asked Sonic.

Sonic threw his hands up. "It took forever! I would have gotten here twenty times faster by running." He perked up and looked around. "But then I wouldn't have gotten to meet... Where are you?" He finally turned around all the way and saw me. "There you are! Wow, I almost thought you had run off!"

"Silver?" Tails peered over Sonic's shoulder at me. I froze, thinking he might have really recognised me.

Thankfully, Amy laughed. "No, silly! But I guess she does look a lot like Silver!"

Tails looked confused. "She? Wait... You must be Mercury! Nice to meet you!" Sonic stepped to the side and pushed me into the group. The young fox put his hand out for me to shake. "My name is Miles Prower, but everybody just calls me Tails. You can probably guess why."

I took his hand and shook it. "Nice to meet you too."

The kit smiled and took his hand back. "Sorry, I mistook you for someone else I know. But now that I see you better, you don't look that much like him."

I nodded and smiled a little awkwardly. "It's okay, I don't mind."

The crocodile butt in loudly. "Hey there! My name's Vector! I run a detective agency called the Chaotix, and if you ever need to solve a mystery or find something that's lost, just call us!" He put his hand out to me for a handshake.

I accepted the hand and got a very strong handshake. My arm felt a bit sore afterwards. "It's a pleasure to meet you, I'll be sure to remember you guys if I ever need anything like that."

Next was the young rabbit. As soon as Vector stepped back from me, I was hugged by the girl. I nearly fell backwards from the suddenness of it. "Hello, miss Mercury! I'm Cream, and this is Cheese!" A small blue chao hugged my arm as well.

My crutches were in the way when I tried to return the hug, so I awkwardly patted her on the head. "Nice to meet you, Cream. But please, just call me Mercury, there's no need to call me 'miss'." To be honest, I still felt like a guy, and being called 'miss' made me feel really awkward.

"Okay then, Mercury! This is my mom! She's really nice, her name is Vanilla!" The little girl released her embrace and then grabbed my arm to drag me over to the older rabbit.

I followed, kind of staggering and trying to keep my crutches from dropping on the ground. I heard Sonic snicker to my right. I got in front of Vanilla, and she smiled at me sympathetically, she could probably relate to being dragged around by her daughter. When I had gotten my balance back, she put put her hand out for me to shake. I took it politely and smiled back at her.

"Nice to meet you, Mercury." She used her other hand as well to shake mine.

I nodded. "The same to you." She let go of my hand, and I was left in the middle of the group. "Uh, it's nice to meet you all. Are we waiting for everybody else, or should we go inside?"

Amy pulled out her phone. "I'll ask the others how close they are." She flipped her phone open and dialled a number really fast.

She turned away from the group to talk to whoever she had called. "Hey Rouge, how close are you guys to the mall?" She listened to the response. "Uh-huh. Okay. We'll meet you there. Got it. Bye!"

She turned back to us. "Rouge and the others are stuck in traffic; they want to meet at the food court when they get here. She said she'll call when they get close. So let's get going, guys!" She grabbed Sonic's hand and skipped towards the mall.

The rest of us just followed. I hurried to keep up as best as I could on my crutches. I wondered what we would do. I sure hope we don't go clothes shopping, that is _really_ boring.

I was amazed as we entered the mall. I'd never been here before, but I didn't expect everything to be so... Big. The stores were all so colourful and bright. I tried to look at all the stores at once, attempting to take it all in. My head whipped from side to side as I took in every store. I heard a few giggles behind me, but I was too fascinated to care. One store really caught my attention, and I stopped in front of it. Shadow (who was behind me) almost ran into me.

It was big, and the front was dark. On the sign in neon red letters, it said 'Hot Topic'. I could see bright things glowing inside, contrasting a lot against the rest of the store, which was dark. It looked really cool, and I really wanted to go inside.

I turned around to the rest of our group and pointed to the store. "Can we go in there? That place looks cool!"

Shadow smirked. "See, Amy? Rouge and I aren't the only ones who like Hot Topic."

Amy rolled her eyes. "Whatever, Shadow. Mercury, how about we go there later, when we have Rouge, most of us don't really like that store. You can go with Rouge and Shadow later if you want. How about we go to JCPenny first?"

I shrugged. "Sure, what's JCPenny?" I wasn't too thrilled about going alone with Shadow and Rouge, whoever she was, but I really want to find out what's in that store.

Amy clapped her hands. "Okay! JCPenny it is! You'll see what it is. I can't believe you've never been there before!" She started skipping to somewhere, presumably the store.

The boys groaned. "Do we have to go there? Can I take Shadow, Vector, and Tails and go somewhere else?" Sonic asked.

Now I was a little anxious. "What's so bad about JCPenny?"

Vector answered me. "I don't mind going. It's a clothing store."

I bit my lip. "Actually, could we go somewhere else? I don't like shopping for clothes much."

Amy stopped. "Guys, you have to come with us. How else will we know if we look good? And Mercury, how do you know you don't like it? You've never been to JCPenny before!"

Shadow rolled his eyes at her first statement. "I don't know... How about looking in a mirror?" He grumbled, sticking his hands in his jacket pockets.

I tried to hide a smile. I had been thinking almost the same thing. "I've been shopping for clothes before. It's just not that fun."

"I heard that, Shadow." Amy growled.

"You were supposed to." He smirked back.

She rolled her eyes at him. "Mercury, I promise you'll like this place. They've got everything! Just come on, unless you want to go when Rouge gets here. We'll never get out if that happens."

I sighed. "Fine."

The boys (minus Vector) groaned. "Do we _have_ to come?" Sonic whined.

Amy grinned. "Yes, you do. Now come on guys, before it gets too crowded!" She rushed off in the direction of the store.

I sighed and tried to keep up on my crutches, but began falling behind, because she was moving so fast. Shadow saw this and tried to get the others' attention, but failed. He walked back to me, and I swallowed hard, trying not to lose my cool. I really didn't want to be stuck alone with Shadow. I kept hurrying along, trying to catch up to Amy's speed, but she was a girl on a mission.

Shadow came to walk with me. "Sorry about them, they never slow down. I'll show you the way to the store, so you don't need to rush so much." He stopped talking and stayed a step ahead of me. I slowed down a little, just because my arms were getting tired.

I looked at him. "Thanks, Shadow."

He was silent for a bit, then he looked back to me with a smirk. "Hey, do you want to mess with them a little? I bet they're about to notice we're not with them."

I shrugged. "What are you planning?"

His smirk widened. "I'll take that as a yes." He put his hand out. "Take my hand."

I bit my lip and cocked an eyebrow at him. "Why?" Now I'm just confused.

He rolled his eyes. "Just trust me. You'll see."

I bit my lip, thinking about it. Should I trust Shadow? He didn't sound like he was going to do anything weird. And he didn't have anything against 'Mercury'. I shrugged. "Sure, why not." And I grabbed ahold of his hand.

He smiled. "Chaos Control!" There was a bright flash of light, and the next thing I knew, we were in front of a huge store. The sign said 'JCPenny'.

I should have guessed. He teleported us, just to mess with the others. I rolled my eyes.

Shadow was looking at me. "You don't look surprised. You do realise I just teleported you halfway across the mall, yes?"

I mentally chewed myself out. What's wrong with me? Of course I should be surprised! I groaned in my head, what do I do now?

I decided to play it cool. "Hey, like I said. I can lift stuff with my mind. Nothing fazes me." I realised he was still holding my hand and let go quickly.

He nodded, smirking. "Fair enough." He pointed to a nearby bench. "You want to sit? The others will probably be a while."

I shrugged again. "Sure." I can't believe he really bought that. I hobbled over to the empty bench and sat down on one side.

Shadow sat next to me and leaned back, crossing his arms behind his head. I leaned my crutches against the wall. When I turned back, Shadow had his eyes closed. I leaned back also, maybe I could rest my eyes for a bit. Everything that's happened since yesterday has left me rather tired.

Shadow yawned. "I bet Amy gets really mad at us. Or me, at least. What do you think?"

I snickered. "I bet she gets really relieved and worried about me, then gets angry with both of us." I'm pretty sure I know Amy better than Shadow does.

Shadow smirked. "You're on. How much? Actually, not money. How about you have to do a dare if you're wrong, and I do a dare if I'm wrong."

I grinned and sat up. "Deal. If I'm right, then while Amy is angry, you have to hug her and tell her... It was the monkey's fault."

Shadow laughed. "Nice. Alright, but if I'm right, then you have to... Kiss Sonic while she's yelling."

I cringed. "Ouch. That would just make her more angry!"

Shadow nodded. "That's the point."

I sighed. "Fine. But you didn't say on the lips." Yeah. That is so not happening. I really hope I'm right about Amy.

Shadow snapped his fingers. "Dang. Oh well." He didn't seem too upset. I wondered why.

"What if we're both wrong?" I asked.

"I highly doubt that, but if we're both wrong, then neither of us have to do the dare." He leaned back again.

"Okay, sounds fair. You're going down." I grinned.

He laughed. "You know, if you're right, then we both win."

I sat up again. "What do you mean?"

He snickered again. "I bet she got angry. You bet that she was relieved before she was angry. Either way, she gets angry, and I win."

I groaned and sat back again, face-palming. "Ughhhhh..."

He kept laughing next to me. His phone went off a few times, but he ignored it every time. A minute or two later, Sonic ran up. He groaned when he saw us. "I found them!" He yelled over his shoulder. He walked over to us, and the rest of the group was running over as well.

Sonic smirked at us. "Amy is going to be so angry with you two..."

I groaned again, and Shadow tried to hold back his laughter.

I glared at him. "Is it too late to change my dare for you?"

"Oh yeah." He responded.

Sonic looked at us funny. "Dare...?"

Shadow smirked some more. "We made a bet on what would happen when you guys found us."

Sonic shook his head. "Nice, guys."

I just groaned again. I was not looking forward to my dare at all. This is _so_ wrong...

Sonic laughed. "Geez, what's so bad about your dare, Mercury?"

Shadow snickered. "Oh, you'll see."

Then Amy arrived. She ran up to me. "Mercury! You're okay! I was so worried that we had lost you!" She checked me over. "What were you two _doing_? You had me so worried! I mean, Shadow, I can see you running off. But Mercury!? I thought you had been kidnapped or something!" She proceeded to keep yelling at both of us. I nudged Shadow to go, but he mouthed "ladies first" back to me. I sighed, got up, and stepped over to Sonic.

I looked at him, and mouthed "I'm Sorry" before making myself kiss him on the cheek. It lasted less than a second, and then I stepped away from him and pushed Shadow towards Amy. I tried not to think about what I'd just done too much.

Amy was standing shell-shocked, staring at me and Sonic. Shadow, still laughing, gave her a hug. "It was the monkey's fault."

Sonic was also a little stunned, but because he knew about the dares, he snapped out of it quickly, and started laughing. "So why did you both do your dares? I thought only one of you could win..."

Amy looked confused, and then realisation hit her face. "Wait, those were dares?"

I nodded. "Shadow bet that you would be angry with us; and I bet that you would be relieved, then angry with us. We both won. I'm sorry guys; it wasn't _my_ idea to kiss Sonic."

Sonic was laughing, but then he stopped. "Hey, why is it such a horrible thing to kiss me? I'm not so bad!"

I didn't know how to respond, so I kind of opened and closed my mouth a few times. Thankfully, Amy answered for me. "You're not her type, Sonic. Anyways, she was probably afraid of my reaction." I nodded rapidly at this.

Sonic shrugged and pouted. "Okay, whatever."

Shadow patted him on the back. "Faker, I told her to kiss you while Amy was yelling at us. The _point_ was to get Amy even angrier."

Amy shook her head. "And it almost worked. I was about to get my hammer out, but Sonic said it was a dare, so I calmed down. You won't get me kicked out of the mall that easily, Shadow."

The darker hedgehog faked a disappointed expression. "Damn, and we almost got out of going to JCPenny's."

Amy sighed. "Do you guys _really_ not want to go there? Because if you really don't want to go, then I can just go with the girls later."

Sonic, Shadow, and Tails all nodded their heads exuberantly. They all said, "We don't want to go." At the same time.

Amy rolled her eyes. "Fine, so where do you want to go?"

Tails spoke up first. "I want to go to the Apple Store!"

Sonic shrugged. "Sounds good, but I want to visit footlocker, or Nike."

Shadow nodded. "I need to visit that hunting store at some point, and the motorcycle one as well."

Amy rolled her eyes. "You mean Academy and Revzilla, Shadow?"

He nodded. "Yeah, those ones. I have to get a couple of things for my gun and my bike."

Vector shrugged. "I don't really need anything, but the Apple Store sounds good, because I'm thinking of getting a new computer."

Shadow snickered. "Why do you want a new one? Did you lose your computer room again?" **(Sorry! I had to! I know that was kind of weak, but it was **_**calling **_**to me.)**

Vector growled. "Not funny, Shadow."

Sonic gave Shadow a questioning look. "Why are you picking on everybody so much today? You usually keep to yourself. What's up?"

Shadow shrugged, and then smirked again. "The ceiling is up. Why don't you look for yourself, Faker."

Sonic sighed and threw his hands up. "Fine, if you don't want to tell me, then be that way."

Amy shook her head. "_Boys_. Come on everybody; let's go to the Apple Store already."

This time, they went at a pace that I could keep up with. I was still at the back though because I didn't know which way to go. Cream stayed back with me, chatting about some TV show she liked. I didn't know anything about it, so I just nodded at her whenever she looked at me. My mind was in other places though. Why _was_ Shadow acting so weird? He didn't even pick on _me_ this much, usually. It seemed like he was taking every opportunity to insult someone. Every time I had ever hung out with him and the group, he had mostly been quiet, and only talked when someone asked him something, aside from picking on me occasionally. It was weird, alright.

* * *

_Shadow The Hedgehog POV_

I looked back to see Mercury keeping up behind us. Cream was talking to her. I felt a little bad for her, trying to keep up with this group on crutches, and wearing a dress like that.

To be honest, I'm really impressed. Most of the girls I know whine a lot about everything, and if they got hurt like her, they'd spend pretty much the whole next day in bed or something, calling their friends and complaining. Not Mercury though. Her first run in with Doctor Eggman, and she blows up his machine, then walks for an hour with a broken leg. I could tell that Sonic was impressed as well, and that isn't easy to achieve. I'd be lying if I said she was just like any other girl I know. Mercury was special. I'm not sure what it was about her that made me feel like this, but I respect her.

I needed to figure out if anybody else felt the same way as I did, so I walked over to Sonic. I know that he won't make fun of me or anything, we respect each other. I tapped him on the shoulder and spoke in a low voice. "Hey, Sonic, mind if I talk to you a bit? I need to ask you something."

He nodded and we moved to the side of the group. He looked over at me. "So what's up? I'm all ears, man."

I sighed. "It's about Mercury. What do you think of her?"

Sonic shrugged. "I think she's pretty cool, why?"

Not exactly the answer I was looking for. "I know that, it's just... Do you notice that she seems different? From other girls, I mean."

Sonic nodded. "Yeah, I noticed that too. I've never met a girl who doesn't want to go shopping for clothes before, and one that seemed so upset to kiss _me_. Even if it was only on the cheek. She's kind of weird, but in a good way. It's refreshing, don't you think?"

I nodded. "Yeah. What is it Amy says?" I tried to remember. "Oh, right. Mercury's the good kind of crazy."

Sonic mock gasped. "_Shadow_, was that a _compliment_?"

I sighed and rolled my eyes. I didn't deem that with an answer.

Sonic smirked beside me. "It was, wasn't it?"

I shrugged to get him to back off. He won't let anything go until he gets an answer anyways. I looked over at him, and he looked pretty stunned. A little weirded out, I waved a hand in front of his face to snap him out of whatever world he was in.

He blinked. "Who are you and what have you done with Shadow the hedgehog!?" He yelled pretty loud, and the rest of the group turned towards us in confusion.

I glared at him. "Shut up, Faker!" Then I kicked him in the shin so that he started hopping around on one foot and holding his leg. Most of our group turned back around. I couldn't help but notice that Mercury was covering up a smile as she turned back to Cream. I turned back to Sonic, who was still acting like a baby.

I growled lowly. "What the hell is wrong with you?!"

Sonic rubbed his shin then put his foot back down. "Sheesh. I just wanted to make sure you weren't one of Eggman's shadow clones or something..."

I glared at him. "And why exactly would that be something you suddenly needed to find out?"

Sonic gave me a look like it was obvious. "Well, duh! The Shadow I know doesn't compliment _anybody_! Ever! What's up with you, man? You've been acting really strange today..."

I shrugged and stared forward. "I have no idea what you mean, Faker."

Sonic walked a bit faster and turned around to walk backwards and look at me. He stared at me for a second before grinning in that stupid way that he likes to. "No way... You like her, don't you?"

I was a bit taken aback. "What?!" I stopped walking and so did he.

He suddenly stared at me seriously. "I can see it, Shadow. You like her. _Like_ like her. Why else would you be acting so strange?"

I growled at him. "What do _you_ know, Sonic? I don't like anyone, remember?"

He grinned impishly. "Except Mercury..."

I growled and pushed past him. "Shut up, Faker."

Sonic wouldn't let it go. "You should ask her out! She's hot, nobody would judge you! Anyways, she doesn't know us all that well, so she can't think you're a jerk yet..."

I turned around and shot him a death glare. "Drop it right now, faker. I don't like her, and I don't like anyone else. So if you value your life, I suggest you shut up." I turned my back to him and kept walking.

Sonic just snorted behind me. "Somebody's in denial~"

I really hate that hedgehog. I just grit my teeth in frustration and kept walking, though.

Sonic caught up to me though. He's so damn persistent. "C'mon Shadow. I't not a crime to like someone. I think she'd be good for you. You better ask her out before someone else does though. From all the looks she's getting, I'd say Mercury is in high demand."

That got my attention. What looks? I glanced around at the other people in the mall, and saw what Sonic meant. Nearly every male, whether they had a girlfriend with them or not, stared at Mercury as she walked by. Some of them even got slapped by the girls they were with. I'm not sure why, but it made me pretty pissed. I growled at the next guy I passed that was staring at her. He freaked out a bit and ran off, making me smirk.

Sonic gloated next to me. "Aw, look at you, already protecting her from other guys."

I growled at him. "Am not. Knock it off."

He grinned. "Deniiiiiaaaaal~"

I groaned and ignored him. He spent the rest of the time grinning and humming as we headed towards the Apple store. I got sick of it very quickly and got away from him so I could walk alone. After a few minutes that felt like hours, we finally got there. Tails ran into the store with Vector behind him and they went crazy over some new tablet.

Most of the girls were looking at iPhone cases, and Sonic ran off to look at those cases that strap the iPod to your arm for running. Mercury went to look at the earbuds. I wasn't really interested in anything here, so I pulled out my iPhone and opened Zombie Highway. **(It's one of the most fun zombie apps ever. It's free. Get it. **ಠuಠ) I leaned against a wall and played the endless ice level in the tank. I got bored after a while though, and paused the game to look up at everybody. Nobody had really gone anywhere different, except Sonic. He had gone over to the earbuds as well and was talking to Mercury.

That couldn't be good. I don't want him telling her that I like her. Not that I do. But you never know with Faker. I turned off my phone and went over to them.

Sonic was holding up a package of the SkullCandy kind of earbuds that you shove in your ears. "How can you like these kind? They're so uncomfortable!"

She sighed. "Why does it matter? Those are just the kind I like."

He shook his head. "But they hurt so much!"

She took the package from him. "Not to me. I think I'll buy these ones."

I relaxed a bit. They were just arguing about what kind of earbuds they liked. Not that I had anything to worry about. Because I don't like her. I walked up just behind her, and Sonic saw me.

He grinned. "Hey Shads! Are you getting anything?"

Mercury spun around. She looked at me, and I could have sworn she looked... Afraid. But the look left her face as soon as I had seen it. She still looked a little nervous though. "Hey... Shadow. You want earbuds too?"

I shook my head. "Nah, I was just making sure Faker wasn't bugging you too much."

Sonic smirked at this, but didn't say anything.

Mercury looked a bit surprised, then annoyed. "He wasn't." She walked past me to the checkout counter.

I watched her leave, then shook my head and looked back to Sonic.

He snickered. "Bad move, Shads. She's not the type to like overprotective guys."

Is that what she thought? I was... being overprotective? Wait, why do I care? I rolled my eyes at him. "Again. Who says I even want to be her type? You're ridiculous."

He kept smirking. "Shadow, Shadow, Shadow... You can deny it all you want, but you know you think she's hot. I can see it."

She is hot. Really hot. But I'm not going to let faker get his way. I growled at him. "Drop it. I don't care about your stupid fantasy. I _don't_ like her. End of discussion." I crossed my arms and glared at him.

He just grinned wider. "Then why'd you care enough to come over and check up on her? I don't see you checking up on anybody else..."

I groaned. "I wanted to make sure you weren't telling her I liked her or something. I don't want to have to explain something like that. I couldn't care less if you were annoying her."

He kept grinning. "_Suuuuure_ you were." Then he patted me on the shoulder. "Shadow, it's nothing to be ashamed of. I even like her a little. C'mon, look me in the eye and tell me you don't like her, even a little bit."

I sneered at him and looked him in the eye. He stared at me really seriously. I looked to his hand and pushed it off. "I don't like her." I looked back at his face, and he was grinning.

"I knew it. You like her. I wasn't a hundred percent sure, but that just confirmed it. You couldn't look me in the eye!" He bit his lip happily.

I snorted. "I do not. You can't prove it."

Sonic happily bounced a bit. "Yes you do. You like her!"

Mercury came up behind me carrying a bag. "He likes who?"

Sonic grinned and opened his mouth. I quickly covered it. "Nobody. He's an idiot." I told her.

She giggled. It was so goddamn cute... What is wrong with me?! I had to smile a little.

Sonic pulled my hand off his mouth. "I may be an idiot, but I'm smarter than you when it comes to girls!" He gloated.

At least he could take a hint about keeping his mouth shut. I rolled my eyes at him and turned to Mercury. "You got your earbuds?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I was thinking I should get a phone too, but I don't know which one to get. What do you guys think?"

Sonic pulled out his phone. "Get the iPhone5. It's wicked fast, and way past cool! Shadow's got one too."

I nodded and pulled mine out. "It's very reliable. It's the best phone I've ever owned."

She nodded. "Sure. I guess if both of you think it's a good choice, then that's what I'll get."

Sonic grinned. "Yeah, and don't forget the case! That's one of the best parts!" He flipped his phone around to show her the picture of him fighting some robot on his case. "Pretty cool, huh?"

She smiled at him. "That's pretty neat, how'd you get one with you on it?"

Sonic laughed. "You're joking, right?"

She shook her head. Her face was blank.

Sonic face-palmed. "Right... You don't get out much. Welp. I'm what you might call a superhero. I've saved Mobius from Doctor Eggman and a few other bad guys more than once. I'm kinda famous, and if you look around, there are plenty of things with my face on them. I even do commercials sometimes."

She looked surprised. "Really? A superhero?! But... Then why aren't there a bunch of people with cameras chasing you around?"

Sonic smiled. "Good question. I have this deal that I made. I keep saving everybody, and people don't mob me when I go outside. I've asked to be treated like an average citizen, but there are days when I do things for my fans too. I enjoy it more this way, and people who really like me are still satisfied. The same goes for everyone in our group."

She nodded. "That's really cool!"

I stuck my hands back in my pockets. "So are you going to go get your phone? Because the others look like they're finishing up."

Mercury nodded and went over to the phones. Sonic and I followed, and she grabbed one of the iPhone5 boxes. We went back over to the check-out counter and the cashier woman called someone over to help Mercury set up the phone. The man that rushed over seemed almost a little too eager to help Mercury. Maybe it was just me, but he smiled at her a lot more than he needed to, and took a lot longer to explain what he was doing than was necessary. I tapped my foot, waiting for him to finish up already. Sonic smirked next to me, so I shot him a glare and stopped.

Of course, he convinced her to get her plan here too, and said it would take him another half an hour. The rest of the group was finishing up with their purchases, and Mercury was told she just needed to wait a little before her phone was finished. The guy, who said his name was Razor, went to the back to set it all up for her.

Amy clapped her hands. "Now you should pick out a case! Come on!" She dragged Mercury over to the accessories racks.

Amy helped Mercury pick out a case, and the others drifted together to the front of the store.

I stayed over by the counter, not wanting to talk to Sonic again. The girls eventually came back, Mercury carrying a neon yellow case. It had rabbit ears coming out the top, and looked kind of cute. Amy apparently loved it, and Mercury was smiling at her enthusiasm. Razor finally came out, and added the case to her plan purchase. She swiped a card and signed the pad and we left.

Razor handed her something then waved at her as we left. "Come back soon, miss!"

She smiled back at him, then looked at what he'd handed her. Sighing, she stuck the piece of paper in her pocket.

Sonic noticed. "What was that?"

She shrugged. "Nothing…"

That was the wrong thing to say. "Yeah right, what'd he give you?" Sonic pushed.

She rolled her eyes. "His number…" she mumbled.

Sonic smirked. "Are you going to call him?" He winked at me. Stupid Faker.

She thought about it, and then shrugged. "Maybe."

Amy butted in. "You should! He's cute!"

I tried really hard not to say anything. I did. "What's so cute about him? He was kind of annoying."

Sonic grinned. Amy gave me a funny look. "Why do you care?"

Sonic opened his mouth, but I covered it, for the second time that day. "No reason… I just didn't like him."

Amy laughed. "Well, Shadow not liking someone? That's new!" Pretty much everyone else joined her in laughing while I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms.

Mercury shook her head. "Since when does it matter whether you like someone who likes me or not?"

I didn't know what to say… she was right, but… it hurt.

Sonic pulled my hand off and frowned. "Well that was a bit harsh…"

I looked away. "I guess it doesn't matter."

Mercury sounded worried. "I'm sorry… I didn't mean… Shadow, I'm sorry."

I shrugged. "It's fine, let's just go."

Amy continued to give me a funny look, and we started heading for the Nike store. Mercury went to talk to Vanilla, and Sonic dragged Amy over to me.

Amy put a hand on her hip. "Spill it. What's going on, you two?"

I sighed again, and Sonic grinned like the Grinch.

He took Amy by the shoulder in the dramatic way that he does. "Well, Amy. You see, Shadow's got a thing for a certain white Hedgehog. I think you know her, she's kinda short, really nice, broke her leg, is this ringing a bell?"

Amy laughed a little at Sonic. "Shadow _likes_ M-?!"

I covered her mouth before she could yell it. "Geez, could you be any louder?"

She pulled my hand off and whispered. "You like _Mercury_? Really?"

I refused to answer. Unfortunately, Faker did that for me. "Yup, He's totally head over heels for that chick!"

I glared at him for a full minute, too angry to even say something. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes for a second before looking back at him. He gulped. "Sonic the Hedgehog. I swear, you are just _asking_ to end up in a hospital." I clenched my fists, determined not to cause a scene. "If you value your health, I suggest you keep your damn trap shut."

He nodded and rolled his eyes. "Geez, Shadow. You're awfully sensitive about this…"

Amy giggled "You must actually like her!

I growled* "Shut up, both of you."

She squealed. "Aww, but you two would be so cute! I wanna help you."

I glared. "First of all, Nothing about me is 'cute' so knock it off. Secondly, I don't like her, so I don't need any damn help!"

We argued like this until we reached the Nike store. I refused to go in, and waited outside while everyone looked at shoes. I didn't have anything to do, so I leaned against the entrance to the store and closed my eyes, resting for the moment. And thinking. Plenty of thinking.

_Sonic's almost worse about shoes than girls are about clothes… I might have to drag him out if he takes too long. But at least he doesn't bother me while he's shopping. That hedgehog is quite possibly the most annoying thing on the planet. I can't even enjoy myself when he's around. Then again, I only seem to enjoy myself when I'm alone. I'll probably end up alone, just for the simple fact that every living thing annoys the hell out of me. I wonder if I'll ever find someone who I'm not annoyed to be around… As much as I hate Sonic, I have to admit I'm a bit jealous. He has no problems with girls. Everyone adores him. And he's always got Amy… I'm 99% sure that those two will end up together. Even though Sonic pretends that He doesn't really like her, I'm certain that he does. If he didn't, why would he let her stick around? It's obvious that she likes him. I don't know why he doesn't just ask her out already. _I started the get a little frustrated. _Who is he to tell me to ask the new girl out, when he won't even ask out the girl who's followed him for years?! I'm done with this. He can't tell me what to do. I'm not asking her out._

A small voice came from somewhere in my head. _But what about when you were waiting with her? Did she annoy you?_

I paused, thinking. _… I guess she didn't… but that doesn't prove anything. I hardly know her._

_But she's pretty. And quiet. And strong._

I sighed. _More like incredibly hot… But… I've… seen… prettier. And what does strong have to do with anything?_

… _LIES. You haven't seen prettier in Vogue Magazine._

I snorted. _Probably because I've never looked in a Vogue Magazine. Wait… am I talking to myself?_

… _Maybe. Hi._

I frowned and grumbled. "I really am going insane…"

The rest of the group came out of the store. Amy was at the front with Mercury, carrying a large bag. Mercury seemed to be arguing with her about something, and Amy dragged her over to me.

"Shadow. Tell her those shoes don't belong on girls." The pink Hedgehog pointed angrily at the white one's feet.

I looked down and smiled a little. On her one good foot, Mercury was wearing a teal military style boot with white and dark blue trim. They looked like the kind of thing you would wear on a mountain hike… but the colour scheme somehow matched pretty well with the yellow sundress. It took some of the 'Girly'-ness away from her, and I… liked it.

I shrugged at Amy. "I don't see your problem."

Amy stomped her foot. "Hello? Open your eyes, Oh Ultimate one! She's wearing MILITARY BOOTS."

I shrugged again. "I can see that. But I don't see a problem with it. It looks fine."

Mercury smiled. "See, _he_ doesn't have a problem with it! What's wrong with wearing boot? I _like_ boots."

I had to smile at that. _You tell her, Mercury._

Amy glared at me. "You're only saying that because y-ˮ

I clamped my hand over her mouth, again. "Because it's true."

Mercury gave me a funny look, and I sweat dropped. Sonic snickered. Everyone else stared at me like I was going crazy.

Amy pulled my hand off, smirking. "Jumpy much? I was just gonna say, because you wear boots."

I sweat dropped again. "… Oh. Right… That's it." Sonic burst out laughing, and Mercury giggled too.

Everyone else laughed awkwardly, and Tails tilted his head. "What are you so paranoid about?"

I glanced at Mercury, who was looking at Sonic and giggling, before I answered him. "Nothing."

Tails saw this, put two and two together, and smiled, also laughing. "Sure, Shadow." _Damn… that kid is too smart…_

After everyone stopped laughing at me, we moved on to my store. Academy. Unfortunately, we never made it, because Rouge called to tell us she had finally made it.

Amy shrugged after she hung up. "Sorry Shadow, it looks like your gun will have to wait."

I sighed. "Fine… I'll get it on my own, later."

Mercury ended up next to me as we walked to the food court. Everyone else seemed to be talking to either Sonic, Amy, or Tails… I facepalmed when I realized what they were doing.

Mercury tilted her head to the side when I groaned. "Uh… are you okay?"

I was still facepalming. "I'm fine, just fine."

She gave me another funny look. "Ooooookay… Anyways, thanks for sticking up for me about the boots. I thought she was actually going to make me return them."

I put my hand down. "No problem. I like them. It's… different. In a good way."

She smiled. "Thank you."

"My pleasure." There was a moment of Silence where we walked for a while before I spoke up. "So, are you hungry for anything in particular?"

She shrugged. "I don't know any of the restaurants, I guess I'll decide when we get there. What about you?"

I shrugged as well. "I'm not that hungry, maybe a smoothie."

"That sounds good. Smoothies are delicious."

I nodded. "Yeah, especially from Jamba Juice. They make the best ones you've ever tasted."

She smiled again. "I'll take your word for it. Maybe I'll get that."

I nodded in agreement and there was another silence. "Hey, Mercury?"

She snapped out of her thoughts. "Yeah?"

I rubbed the back of my neck, suddenly feeling awkward. "Could I get your number? Before I forget?"

She paused mid-step, but got moving again quickly. "Huh? Um… sure, no problem. My number is 795-346-1453."

"Whoa, wait a second; I need to pull out my phone." I did so and went to the contacts list. "Okay, repeat please?"

She smiled apologetically. "Right. 795-436-1453." She didn't even pull out her phone.

I added her in to my contacts then looked back to her. "Do you want my number?"

She shrugged. "I think Amy already put you all in. I've already got it."

I nodded. "That sounds like her. Hey, um, how did you remember your number without looking at your phone? You just got it less than an hour ago…"

She smirked. "Oh, right. I've got an eidetic memory. So things stick in my head once I've seen or heard them.

I laughed a little. "That's awesome! Wait… can you remember…" I tried to think of something obscure that I'd seen this morning. "The name of the nurse in the lobby with red fur? I think she was a Lynx."

She bit her lip for a second and then smiled. "Nikki T. Abate."

I laughed. "No way. That's insane. You remember _everything_ you see?"

She nodded. "Yeah, it's pretty useful."

"I bet." We reached the food court, finally. "So, you want to check out the smoothies?"

She smiled and nodded again. "Lead the way."

* * *

**AN: Thank you all so much for all the support! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it for you guys! Thanks to all the people who helped me out with thinking up ideas for this chapter (and future ones ^.^ ).**

**And to thank all of you who Favourited, Followed, Reviewed, and PMed me! Here are my shout outs, because I liked doing it last time ^.^**

**To SilvazeFan11: Thank you so much for all the help with ideas and the support for writing this story! I really wasn't sure if people actually liked reading this story, and you helped me keep being motivated to write. Also its a lot of fun to talk to you! I wish you great luck with your fanfiction!**

**To be completely honest, when I saw your username the first time you PMed me, I kinda freaked out a little. I thought you were gonna be really mad at me for writing a shadilver story, because you liked Silvaze, but I'm really glad you like it! ^.^**

**To JTycoonZodiacMaster: Thanks so much, bro! I hoped 'ALL HAIL' might get a few laughs, it just seemed like the perfect licence plate for Shadow (7 letters... That might be my licence plate when I get a car ^.^). I love all the ideas and help you gave me with this chapter! And the power of religion video was very amusing XD I'm so glad to have found another British friend who likes this story! Keep being awesome, and RELIGION!**

**To my Anonymous Guest: Here it is! Walah!**

**To Bri5636: Yeah, that ain't even the half of it. Silver will be more than miffed when I'm through with him *mischievous evil grin***

**To Mischievousone: Thank you so much! I'm happy you think I've done a good job ^.^ and Mephiles does have an important part, just wait. At the moment he's kind of like my narrator/3rd person omniscient POV guy. Sort of like a recapper? But don't worry, he is very important. Have patience, young grasshopper.**

**To AskSilverexe666: dude. You rock! Thanks for the inspiration on dA and being an amazing friend!**

***cute kind of random Roleplay with JettheHawk1414: **** .com**** * (Roleplay on a deviation from DeviantArt)**

**Jetthehawk1414: CUTE SHADOW!**

**Shadow: I'm NOT cute!**

**Biagotmilkandjelly: Oh Shadow, yes you are.**

**Sonic: you are to me, Shadow.**

**Shadow: *coughs* NO.**

**Silver: I think you're adorable too! *walks towards Shadow with arms open* Give me a hug!**

**Blaze: I want one too!**

**Shadow: NO HUGS!**

**Silver: yes hugs!**

**Amy: C'mon, Shadow, you hug me!**

**Shadow: No. You hug me by force. NO. HUGS.**

**Silver/Sonic/Blaze/Amy: BUT **_**Shadow**_**...**


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